The Problem of 'Uppity' Blacks

Why Faculty at DePaul University are trying to destroy Professor Jason Hill

DePaul University Professor Jason Hill speaking at a Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) event, 2019

DePaul University’s Professor Jason D. Hill has been the recipient of intense vitriol, defamation, and racism on campus, not by men in white sheets or a group of people with swastikas tattooed on their necks. No, but by his colleagues at DePaul. The quickness with which supposed champions of compassion turn to hate-filled bigotry is quite astounding. From Hill’s colleague, Professor Nila Ginger Hofman calling his country of origin a “sh*t-hole country,” to other coworkers fighting tooth and nail for Hill not to receive tenure, to the wound-opening echoes of the racially pejorative ‘uppity’ in reference to him, Hill has been persona-non-grata at his workplace. What was his offense?

Professor Hill dared to apply logic, reasoning, and truth to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, speaking his mind. And he dared to do so as a Black man, something that has always been a cardinal sin in the eyes of certain White people. Hill penned an article in 2019 entitled The Moral Case For Israel Annexing The West Bank—And Beyond. In his article, he lays out why Israel has the right to all of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), not just because of Jewish indigeneity but because of the rules of war itself. Hill states:

There can be no such thing as legitimate “Palestinian Territory” in a geographic region legally seized in a defensive war instigated by a foreign aggressor. The purpose of war is always to vanquish the enemy. The losers of the war cannot make demands on the victors that the victors themselves would not have been put in the position of meeting had the adversary or enemy not forced the victors into making it in the first place.

This logic rings true and goes largely unchallenged when applied to any other country. Yet, somehow the academic elite at DePaul cannot stomach the thought of the same basic reasoning being applied to the Jewish State. But that is not even the worst part.

If Hill’s colleagues at a prestigious university had a problem with an academic piece he published, one would assume his piece would be challenged with another academic piece by those colleagues. Or perhaps they would invite him to debate to prove their intellectual and moral superiority. This seems the sensible thing to do in such situations, but that is not what was done. Instead, Hill’s colleagues are outraged at his audacity to express himself, acting as though they are children having temper tantrums. They are shunning Hill, calling him names, defaming him and trying to revoke his tenure, among many other things. In a recent tweet, Professor Hill stated, “a lot of emotional damage has been inflicted on me.” I discuss this condescending attitude towards Black men and women in an article entitled BDS hates independent Black voices.

From time immemorial, Blacks who were deemed ‘Uppity Negroes’ were those that were despised by Whites who felt their power was being threatened. Whenever a Black person was labeled as such, attempts would be made to shut them down. That shutdown in the 18th century would look like raping and/or beating a slave to death in front of other slaves to prove a point. That shutdown in the 19th century would look like kidnapping free Black men and women from the North, dragging them down to the South, and forcing them back into a life of slavery. That shutdown in the 20th century would look like White women falsely accusing Black boys of rape and condemning them to hours of mutilation and torture before being killed.

What does that shutdown look like in the 21st century? Thank God we do not live in the times of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and lynchings. But what shutting down an ‘uppity’ Black man looks like today is what we see happening to professor Jason D. Hill at DePaul or others like Professor Roland Fryer of Harvard University. What happens to Black individuals who stray from progressive orthodoxy is devastating to the truth and those lives who would otherwise be improved by it.

If ten people are stranded in a dry and hot desert with no water in sight, and one person has twenty bottles of fresh water in their backpack, food for two weeks, and seeds for edible plants that grow specifically in the desert, that one person would seem to have the most viable solution to the crisis, especially considering no one else has anything of value. Now, imagine whenever one person takes his backpack off and begins to open it, three other people tackle the person, tie up their arms and legs, and keep the backpack for themselves. Now imagine those same three people telling the rest of the group that there is nothing good in the backpack and that the person who had it is evil and should be ostracized. Eventually, the people, if they believed the lies, will die.

This is what is at play here when the truth is stifled, no matter the skin color of the individual who tells it. But it seems especially, even personally biting, when the attackers revert to the same old tired racist tactics, embodying the very spirit of evil they always claim to oppose.

Faculty at DePaul University are attempting to destroy Professor Jason Hill. But, in his own words, Hill is a “fighter” who won’t “back down” or be “silenced.” He has filed a lawsuit against DePaul. The trial begins in November. The Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI) will be following the trial closely and will provide updates when available.