Foreign Affairs

Thousands Sign Petition To Have Cambridge University Professor Fired For Saying White Lives Don’t Matter

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More than 17,500 people have signed a petition calling for Cambridge University to fire one of their lecturers for tweeting “White Lives Don’t Matter.”

Dr. Priyamvada Gopal, now a full-time professor of colonial and postcolonial literature and theory at Cambridge University, tweeted Monday: “I’ll say it again. White Lives Don’t Matter. As white lives.” Gopal has also tweeted a call to “abolish whiteness.”

A petition to get Gopal fired started on Change.org Tuesday arguing that Gopal’s “statements are racist and hateful and must not be tolerated by Cambridge University leadership.”

The petition had more than 17,500 signatures as of Thursday afternoon. Neither Dr. Gopal nor Cambridge University returned the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Abolish whiteness

— Priyamvada Gopal (@PriyamvadaGopal) June 23, 2020

“Cambridge must move to immediately discontinue their relationship with Ms. Gopal in the best interest of all students and the community at large,” the petition said.

“Together we are sending a very powerful message that hatred and racism cannot exist in schools. That it is intolerable to treat others as if they are less than, indeed, that their lives [don’t] matter. That it is unacceptable and irresponsible to allow professors to teach young adults to hate others because of the color of their skin. That universities are not breeding grounds for bigotry,” the petition said.

The petition asked for more signatures to “ensure that all people are protected against racism, both in and outside the educational arena.”

“Allowing Ms. Gopal to continue lecturing at Cambridge sets a precedent that this behavior is acceptable and welcome agents teaching faculty. Racism cannot be tolerated,” the petition said.

After the petition was launched, Gopal tweeted that she stood by her original tweets, despite Twitter deleting one of them. She also said on Twitter that she had been the target of harassment and that “the hate mails & threats are coming in non-stop.”

I would also like to make clear I stand by my tweets, now deleted by Twitter, not me. They were very clearly speaking to a structure and ideology, not about people.

— Priyamvada Gopal (@PriyamvadaGopal) June 25, 2020

Gopal tweeted on June 25 that her account was temporarily suspended on Twitter, but had been reinstated. In the same tweet, she announced she had been promoted to “full Professorship” on June 24.

Thanks to everyone who wrote to @Twitter: the ludicrous ban has been lifted. I am therefore delighted to share with you personally, that last night Cambridge promoted me to a full Professorship. The hate mails & threats are coming in non-stop but @CambridgeCops are following up

— Priyamvada Gopal (@PriyamvadaGopal) June 25, 2020

Cambridge University said it defends the rights of professors to express lawful opinions in a tweet June 24. “The University defends the right of its academics to express their lawful opinions which other might fight controversial,” the tweet said. Cambridge University’s tweet did not directly mention Gopal.

The University defends the right of its academics to express their own lawful opinions which others might find controversial and deplores in the strongest terms abuse and personal attacks. These attacks are totally unacceptable and must cease.

— Cambridge University (@Cambridge_Uni) June 24, 2020