Rutgers Unions Come Out in Support of Their Colleague Targeted by Turning Point
“Silence in the face of these assaults will only embolden the far right,” the professors' unions said in a statement.
The Rutgers teachers’ unions are standing in solidarity with History Professor Mark Bray, who has been targeted by Turning Point USA’s student chapter at Rutgers.
The group has falsely claimed that Bray, the author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook is “a prominent leader of the antifa movement on campus,” and launched a campaign to have him fired. “Antifa,” which is short for antifascist, is a frequent target of President Donald Trump and others on the extreme right. As Holly Baxter wrote in The Independent:
Antifa isn’t real — at least, not in the way one convenes a roundtable. It has no central command structure, no coherent leadership, no membership rolls, no headquarters. It is a loose ideological umbrella — a term that is sometimes used by disparate activists and local groups, but much more frequently by the far right than by the supposed lefties who are part of it.
Bray says he has received death threats, and that he and his partner, Yesenia Barragan, also a Rutgers professor, are temporarily relocating to Europe because they fear for their family’s safety.
On Wednesday, Rutgers AAUP-AFT and the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union issued a joint statement calling on the administration, students, and staff to publicly support Bray. A petition, unaffiliated with the unions, is also circulating asking the Rutgers administration to disband the Turning Point student chapter. So far, the petition has close to 2,000 signatures. (Disclosure: The author signed the petition and has taught at Rutgers.)
“Silence in the face of these assaults will only embolden the far right,” the unions said. “With that in mind, the Rutgers faculty unions reject Turning Point USA’s smear campaigns and proudly stand with our colleagues Dr. Mark Bray and Dr. Yesenia Barragan.”
They continued: “Turning Point’s attack is part of an escalating effort by the far right to suppress the speech, teaching, and scholarship of faculty who do not conform to their movement’s politics.”
Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot last month, founded Turning Point USA, an extremist right-wing group in 2012. A close ally of President Trump, Kirk frequently made racist, sexist, and anti-trans statements, and mocked the Palestinian victims of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
In 2016, Kirk’s organization created a “Professor Watchlist,” of, the group says, “professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.”
“Silence in the face of these assaults will only embolden the far right,” the unions said. “With that in mind, the Rutgers faculty unions reject Turning Point USA’s smear campaigns and proudly stand with our colleagues Dr. Mark Bray and Dr. Yesenia Barragan.”
Twenty-two Rutgers professors are currently on the Turning Point Watchlist, which is available online.
People can submit tips to the site via a website form that requests the professor’s name, university, and an explanation of how they are “biased.”
It asks tipsters to “select all that apply to the professor,” above a list that includes, Anti-Law Enforcement, Anti-Second Amendment, Antisemitic, Climate Alarmist, Foreign Influence, Socialism, Identity Politics, and Riots and Violence. “Antisemitic” is also included on the list, which is likely code for pro-Palestine. Those who support Israel’s genocide use baseless accusations of antisemitism to attack pro-Palestine, anti-genocide activists.
Twenty-two Rutgers professors are currently on the Turning Point Watchlist, which is available online.
Professors on the list say they’ve been harassed and received death threats.
“For weeks my inbox and voicemail were deluged. Mostly white men spat venom through the phone: ‘bitch,’ ‘c*nt,’ ‘n****r,’” Howard University Professor Stacey Patton posted on Facebook after Kirk’s death.
She was placed on the Watchlist in 2024.
“They threatened all manner of violence,” she continued.
Kirk’s Watchlist has “terrorized” professors “who challenged white supremacy, gun culture, or Christian nationalism,” she wrote.
“Kirk sent the loud message to us: speak the truth and we will unleash the mob!”
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