Russell J. Rickford: Difference between revisions

 

==Career==

In 2000, Rickford and his father co-wrote ''Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English'', a book about African-American Vernacular English<ref name=SFE1>{{cite web |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DM&p_theme=dm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0ED8226258995030&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D |title=Father and son authors make case for acceptance of Ebonics |last=Wagner |first=Venise |date=April 30, 2000 |work=[[The San Francisco Examiner]] |access-date=November 26, 2011 }}</ref> which won the [[American Book Award]].<ref>{{cite web |author=American Booksellers Association |title=The American Book Awards&nbsp;/&nbsp;Before Columbus Foundation [1980–2012] |year=2013 |url=http://www.bookweb.org/btw/awards/The-American-Book-Awards---Before-Columbus-Foundation.html |publisher=BookWeb |quote='''''2000''''' [...] ''Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English, '''John Russell Rickford''' and '''Russell John Rickford''''' |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313174235/http://bookweb.org/btw/awards/The-American-Book-Awards---Before-Columbus-Foundation.html |archive-date=March 13, 2013 |access-date=September 25, 2013}}</ref> The term "Spoken Soul" was coined by author [[Claude Brown]] in the 1960s and pays homage to the rhythmic, poetic qualities of African-American English.<ref name=SpokenSoul>{{cite book|author1=John R. Rickford|author2=Russell John Rickford|title=Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gfULspb8h_EC&pg=PA240|access-date=November 26, 2011|year=2000|publisher=John Wiley and Sons|isbn=978-0-471-32356-3|page=ix}}</ref>

 

In 2001,<ref name=jouvay/> Rickford left his job in Philadelphia and moved into his parents' [[Garage (house)|garage]] to write the first, and to date only, in-depth biography of [[Betty Shabazz]].<ref name=Eymer/> An effort that spanned five and a half years, ''Betty Shabazz: A Remarkable Story of Survival and Faith Before and After Malcolm&nbsp;X'' was published in 2003.<ref name=jouvay/> Writing in ''[[The Crisis]]'', [[William Jelani Cobb]] called Rickford's work "a thorough, insightful and engaging book, befitting its enigmatic—and ultimately heroic—subject".<ref name=WJCobb/>

 

In 2002, Rickford enrolled at [[Columbia University]], studying for a master's degree in [[African-American studies]] under [[Manning Marable]].<ref name=TheRoot2011>{{cite web |url=https://www.theroot.com/a-eulogy-for-manning-marable-1790863386 |title=A Eulogy for Manning Marable |last=Rickford |first=Russell |date=April 4, 2011 |work=[[The Root (magazine)|The Root]] |access-date=April 29, 2018 }}</ref><ref name=DartmouthCollegeKing>{{cite web |url=http://www.dartmouth.edu/~mlk/calendar/what_matters.html |title=What Matters to Me and Why? |date=January 18, 2011 |publisher=[[Dartmouth College]] |access-date=November 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121043323/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~mlk/calendar/what_matters.html |archive-date=2012-01-21 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Between 2003 and 2004, he contributed research to Marable's [[Malcolm X]] Project and, according to Marable, "was instrumental in setting up many oral histories and interviews" with Malcolm X's contemporaries.<ref name=MarableMalcolmX>{{cite book|author=Manning Marable|title=Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LO3OvdrIW5wC&pg=PT4|access-date=November 26, 2011|date=April 4, 2011|publisher=Penguin Books Ltd|isbn=978-0-7139-9895-5|page=492}}</ref> Marable credited Rickford with coining the term "Malcolmology" to describe the way in which African Americans rediscovered Malcolm X as a cultural icon after he was embraced by major [[hip-hop]] artists of the 1980s and 1990s.<ref name=MarableSouls>{{cite web |url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/pdfs/marable_souls_mx.pdf |title=Rediscovering Malcolm X's Life: A Historian's Adventures in Living History |last=Marable |first=Manning |work=Souls |volume=7 |issue=1 |date=Winter 2005 |pages=24–29 |access-date=November 26, 2011 }}</ref> Rickford completed his doctorate in history at Columbia in 2009.<ref name=DartmouthCollegeKing/> His dissertation won that year's Bancroft Dissertation Award. His research concerns African-American politics after the [[Civil Rights Movement]]. In an interview, he said he was trying to answer the question, "Why did [[black nationalism]] become increasingly conservative towards the end of the 20th century?"<ref name=Baum>{{cite web |url=http://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2009/11/despite-cuts-new-profs-join-college-faculty |title=Despite cuts new profs. join College faculty |last=Baum |first=Ann |date=November 10, 2009 |work=[[The Dartmouth]] |access-date=June 20, 2018 }}</ref>

 

Rickford joined the [[Dartmouth College|Dartmouth]] faculty in 2009,<ref name=Baum/> moving to Cornell in 2014. In early 2011, he edited a collection of writings by Marable entitled ''Beyond Boundaries''.<ref name=Watson>{{cite web |url=http://diverseeducation.com/article/14988/ |title=Manning Marable Remembered as Public Intellectual and Activist |last=Watson |first=Jamal Eric |date=April 5, 2011 |work=Diverse Issues in Higher Education |access-date=November 14, 2011 }}</ref> Described by his former mentor as "one of the most talented and insightful" members of a new generation of black intellectuals,<ref name=Marable2011>{{cite book|author=Manning Marable|editor=Russell Rickford|title=Beyond Boundaries: The Manning Marable Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UPvUQgAACAAJ|access-date=November 26, 2011|date=April 30, 2011|publisher=Paradigm Publishers|isbn=978-1-59451-861-4|page=vii}}</ref> In 2016, Rickford completed a history of [[Pan-Africanism|Pan-Africanist]] private schools during the [[Black Power]] era titled ''[[We Are an African People]]: Independent Education, Black Power, and the Radical Imagination''.<ref name=Cornell/> Presently he teaches undergraduate seminars and supervises graduate reading at Cornell.<ref name=Cornell/>

 

In October 2023, video was publicized of Rickford speaking at an October 15 rally held in support of Palestinians after the [[2023 Hamas attack on Israel]],<ref name="Quinn 2023">{{cite news |last1=Quinn |first1=Ryan |title=Cornell Leaders Condemn Prof. ‘Exhilarated’ by Hamas Attack |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/10/18/cornell-leaders-condemn-prof-exhilarated-hamas-attack |access-date=25 October 2023 |work=[[Inside Higher Ed]] |date=October 18, 2023 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Anderson 2023">{{cite news |last1=Anderson |first1=Nick |title=War in Mideast inflames college campuses and raises fears of antisemitism |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/10/18/university-israel-hamas-college-tensions/ |access-date=24 October 2023 |work=[[The Washington Post]] |date=18 October 2023}}</ref> where according to ''[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]'', he "appeared to refer to the massacre of more than 1,400 Israelis on Oct 7 by the terrorist group as a 'challenge to the monopoly of violence'."<ref name="Nanu 2023">{{cite news |last1=Nanu |first1=Maighna |title=Ivy League professor: Hamas attack was ‘exhilarating’ |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/17/israel-hamas-attack-was-exhilarating-ivy-league-professor/ |access-date=24 October 2023 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] |date=17 October 2023}}</ref> He also said "It was exhilarating".<ref name="Nanu 2023"/><ref name="Anderson 2023"/><ref name="Touré 2023">{{cite news |last1=Touré |first1=Madina |last2=Cordero |first2=Katelyn |title=Why colleges are struggling with their response to the Israel-Hamas war |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/21/colleges-israel-hamas-war-00122845 |access-date=25 October 2023 |work=[[Politico]] |date=21 October 2023 |language=en}}</ref> Cornell officials issued statements over the next several days condemning his remarks.<ref name="Anderson 2023"/><ref name="Quinn 2023"/><ref name="Levenson 2023">{{cite news |last1=Levenson |first1=Eric |title=Debate over the Israel-Gaza war has raised tensions -- and the stakes -- on college campuses |url=https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/19/us/israel-palestinians-university-debate/index.html |access-date=24 October 2023 |work=[[CNN]] |date=19 October 2023 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Touré 2023"/> On October 18, the ''[[Cornell Daily Sun]]'' published a letter from Rickford that included, "I apologize for the horrible choice of words that I used in a portion of a speech that was intended to stress grassroots African American, Jewish and Palestinian traditions of resistance to oppression."<ref name="Bandler 2023">{{cite news |last1=Bandler |first1=Aaron |title=Cornell Professor Apologizes for Calling Hamas Terror Attack “Exhilarating” |url=https://jewishjournal.com/news/united-states/364208/cornell-professor-apologizes-for-calling-hamas-terror-attack-exhilarating/ |access-date=24 October 2023 |work=[[The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles|The Jewish Journal]] |date=20 October 2023}}</ref><ref name="Lapin 2023">{{cite news |last1=Lapin |first1=Andrew |title=Cornell professor apologizes for saying he was 'exhilarated' by Hamas attack, as campus Israel battles continue |url=https://www.jta.org/2023/10/20/united-states/cornell-professor-apologizes-for-saying-he-was-exhilarated-by-hamas-attack-as-campus-israel-battles-continue |access-date=24 October 2023 |work=[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] |date=20 October 2023}}</ref><ref name="Touré 2023"/> By October 20, U.S. Senator [[Kirsten Gillibrand]] and U.S. Representative [[Claudia Tenney]] had called for Rickford to be fired.<ref name="Lapin 2023"/><ref name="Saffer 2023">{{cite news |last1=Saffer |first1=Matthew |title=New York senator calls for firing of Cornell University professor |url=https://cnycentral.com/news/local/new-york-senator-calls-for-firing-of-cornell-university-professor |access-date=24 October 2023 |work=WSTM |date=18 October 2023 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Touré 2023"/> A semester leave of absence for Rickford was announced on October 21.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Reschini |first1=Rodge |title=BREAKING {{!}} Rickford takes leave of absence |url=https://www.thecornellreview.org/rickford-called-hamas-attacks-exhilarating-takes-leave/ |access-date=24 October 2023 |work=The Cornell Review |date=21 October 2023}}</ref>