1/9) I often beat myself up after talks for not saying things I should have. This happened yesterday in the Cost of Solidarity panel with my brilliant friends, Steven Salaita and Marc Lamont Hill.Some things I want to note:

2/9)There's work 2 do among Palestinians, but there has never been a time n our struggle when Palestinian activists didn't stand w African American or African liberation struggles.There's a long & rich history of political, guerrilla, cultural, material and rhetorical solidarity.

3/9)The story from my adolescence is embarrassing, but I told 2 illustrate what it means to take for granted that the demonized and marginalized will understand why U must distance yourself from them. It doesn't consider the humanity or dignity of those persons or peoples.

4/9) There are some people on the left who previously advocated for Palestine, but abruptly went silent upon securing better jobs and higher social status. That hurts, and frankly makes one wonder if their solidarity was solidarity at all.

5/9) I did manage to say this in the panel, but I will repeat it: True solidarity has a cost. What is it really worth to the oppressed if it's easy and cheap and popular? Solidarity matters most when it's hard, unpopular, and costly.

6/9) I don't think about whether people will call me anti-Semitic. I know I'm not. I also know that label is weaponized against me. It's used to cover up piles of Palestinian bodies & unspeakable anguish of an indigenous people watching their ancient existence slowly disappear.

7/9) When I show up for Black lives, it's not because I'm expecting Black America to show up for me, but because that is simply the side of life, the side of morality, the side of justice where I choose to fight.

8/9) Being Palestinian is lonely AF beyond our immediate circles. There are too many opportunistic people, from leftist individuals 2 Arab autocrats, who used 'solidarity' and aid to ride on our backs for international political gain, only to turn around and put a knife in us.

9/9) The normalized idea in academia that professors should "wait until tenure" to utter the most minimal expression of compassion 4 Palestinians is awful beyond words. Imagine it's taken for granted they can't speak against antiSemitism or racism "until tenure".