Thursday 4/18- Don't Let Them Turn Tragedy Into Racism

Don't Let Them Turn Tragedy Into Racism
Resisting US Empire in the Age of Obama

TWO EVENTS IN BOSTON!

4PM: George Sherman Union 320-21, Boston University

7PM: Science Center Hall E, Harvard University

RSVP on Facebook: BU Event | Harvard Event

The horrific images of the bombings at the Boston Marathon on April 25 shocked everyone. The brutal attack has left 3 dead and scores injured. We have seen images of hundreds of ordinary people, doctors, nurses and other caregivers rush into action to help strangers in need.

And now we can't let this tragedy turn into hate and racism. After 9/11, racist and anti-Muslim attacks skyrocketed - both by individuals, and by the FBI and Dept. of Homeland Securitys.  Similarly, after Monday's attacks, the police raided the house of Boston students of Saudi Arabian nationality.  Right-wing fanatic and Fox News commentator Erik Rush tweeted that Muslims are "evil. Let's kill them all." 

More than 10 years after 9/11 and the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, President Obama has continued Bush's 'War on Terror' by increasing wars abroad and repressing civil liberties at home.

What will it take to stop tragedy from turning into racism?

Featuring internationally-acclaimed socialist blogger and author RICHARD SEYMOUR of Lenin's Tomb; and KHURY PETERSEN-SMITH of the International Socialist Organization.

Sponsored by: BU Anti-War Coalition; BU Students for Justice in Palestine; International Socialist Organization; Haymarket Books; Harvard Socialists at GSAS; United National Antiwar Coalition (Boston); and Verso Books.

About Richard Seymour

One of Britain's leading young radical intellectuals, RICHARD SEYMOUR is the principal contributor to Lenin's Tomb, one of the UK's most popular blogs. A regular columnist for the Guardian, Seymour is also the author of four books, most recently American Insurgents: A Brief History of American Anti-Imperialism (Haymarket 2012) and Unhitched: The Trial of Christopher Hitchens (Verso 2013). He is a founding member of the International Socialist Network.

Praise for Richard Seymour's Unhitched

"Clever, incisive...'Unhitched' offers a more thorough and in-depth discrediting of Hitchens than anything previously published. And in doing so, Seymour has made an important contribution to understanding the political role of the intellectual celebrity in our time." --In These Times

"Richard Seymour's 'Unhitched,' a slim and scathing denunciation of turncoat scoundrel Christopher Hitchens, is a thoroughly satisfying and politically important book by one of the few remaining great radical left journalists.” --Rabble

"Seymour reveals Hitchens as having had a lifelong admiration both for the United States and for empires as civilizing forces." --Washington Post Book World

"Richard Seymour employs a unique technique to shred Hitchens’s political philosophy to pieces: Seymour puts the late writer on trial." --The Christian Science Monitor

About Khury Petersen-Smith

A long-time anti-imperialist activist, KHURY PETERSEN-SMITH traveled to Iraq in 2004 and the Gaza Strip in 2009 with international solidarity delegations. His academic research focuses on the geography of the US military.