ReVisioning American History With Ward Churchill
Fox News,
November 1, 2007: "Fired University of Colorado Professor
Ward Churchill Keeps Teaching on
Campus."
A group of University of
Colorado students intent on preserving the liberal arts
tradition of intellectual diversity are sponsoring an
on-campus open-air course taught by former professor Ward
Churchill during October and November. The unsanctioned
course, “ReVisioning American History: Colonization,
Genocide and formation of the U.S. Settler State” is
intended to “provide those desiring it a critical and
comprehensive alternative to the triumphal narrative upon
which the euroupremacist orthodoxy of scholarship has been
constructed, refined, and is currently being (re)imposed
with increasing rigidity on campuses across the United
States.”
The first four lessons define colonialism, genocide and
racism in relation to historical practice and international
law. Later lectures will relate these institutions to the
development of U.S. ‘settler state’ colonization and
imperialism. Churchill likes to contrast this account to
mainstream interpretations of U.S. history that bear
witness to a rough but glorious unfolding of American
ideals in a hostile world. The key reading list is
extensive and the syllabus includes an eight-page listing
of supplemental sources. It quickly becomes obvious why
Churchill's recent firing was an important accomplishment
for the CU administration’s insidious Purge of dissident
and ‘revisionist’ scholarship around socially important
themes. Churchill was an important target, particularly as
some of his contrary views when put into practice, as
Churchill is inclined to do, might gain traction among
disaffected youth and other ordinary folks (the much
criticized 9/11 essay notwithstanding).
Indicative of the toxic residue that still lingers here was
an incident that occurred during the first class. A
reporter and cameraman from the Boulder Daily Camera
arrived to cover a ‘media event’. The Camera, a
Scripps/Media News Group outlet along with the Colorado
Daily, Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, has
relentlessly slanted its coverage against Churchill. Rather
than respect Churchill’s stipulation of no recording
devices in the classroom, the two reporters tried to induce
others to take the equipment into the room. Three students
who were induced to sneak in a device were ejected. The
determined reporters then tried to force their way into the
room, but were blocked and removed by student organizers.
Since the allowance of recording equipment at an on-campus
event is the sponsor’s prerogative, the reporters were out
of line. The two seemed intent on creating a ‘reportable’
incident and even called campus police to allege an assault
on them had taken place. Nonetheless, the Camera's coverage
of the class was relatively benign with some mention of
organizers ‘getting physical’ and some whining about
alleged violations of free speech.
Despite its inauspicious beginning, the course has settled
into an interesting flight over historical landscapes not
many of us have seen. And, we are riding with a bush pilot
who knows the terrain with its monumental features that
shape our lives yet somehow escape our view.
