UNC professor on leave once joined Harvard for panel on armed political action

EXCLUSIVE: Fox News Digital has obtained a video of a panel hosted by Harvard University’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights that featured a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor placed on leave over his membershp in a far-left antifa gun club. 

The video, which was posted on the center’s YouTube page on Feb. 3, 2018, remained active until just after Fox News Digital’s Monday report that UNC Professor Dwayne Dixon was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into his affiliation with Redneck Revolt. 

Harvard did not return multiple requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

Redneck Revolt is a gun club described by the Counter Extremism Project as a “far-left group” that “stands against capitalism and the concept of the nation-state, including its symbols such as police, prisons and courts.”

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Dixon headlined the panel, during which he spoke for about 30 minutes about Redneck Revolt’s presence at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. He made his case for armed political action, billed as self-defense against violent Nazis, white supremacists and fascists.

He described the “far-right” as “filled with murderous rage,” though he never clearly defined the term “far-right.” 

During his speech, Dixon framed armed political action in the United States in 2018 inside the context of the era of American slavery, when violent means were used to achieve political goals. 

Describing famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Dixon said, “he saw no hope that slavery would ever be abolished by moral or political means.”

“Douglass is not a victim of some faint-hearted anxiety about the use of force to free slaves, and to dispatch those who would threaten their freedom or their lives,” he said. “He plainly says the system must be met with its own weapons.”

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“Let the Nazis assemble and speak in public, and they will attack you, and then they’re going to come for the people you love,” said Dixon. “To paraphrase Robert F. Williams…Robert F. Williams of Monroe, North Carolina, my struggle is against white supremacy, not for civil rights. I’m here to smash white supremacist capitalism, not defend civil society.” 

He also criticized other liberals for not being forceful enough in combating perceived “white supremacist” threats of violence, and bemoaned “the liberal institution’s complicity with fascist creep.” 

“In brief, the liberal project reaches its limit in imagining the state has any interest in restraining the very shock troops it needs to dominate the social order, whether those are police or neo-Nazis,” he said. 

The Trump administration has recently been battling the school in an attempt to block it from receiving federal grant money. Former Harvard President Claudine Gay blasted the school earlier this month for what she views as cooperation with Trump. 

“The posture of the institution seems to be one of compliance,” Gay said. “This is distressing, not only for those of us who are on campus and facing the consequences directly, but also for all of those in higher ed who look to Harvard for leadership and guidance.”

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Violent political rhetoric has been a hot subject in the wake of the political assassination of Charlie Kirk, and after another ICE facility, this time in Dallas, was attacked by a deranged gunman who allegedly held left-wing views. 

Dixon had been charged, though never convicted, with several misdemeanors related to armed activism as a member of Redneck Revolt. He was charged with a gun crime in connection with an anti-KKK riot in Durham, North Carolina. The KKK was present. He was also charged with simple assault on the night in 2018 when a Confederate statue called Silent Sam was toppled on the UNC campus. 

He and Redneck Revolt were sued by the city of Charlottesville after the Unite the Right rally. The city claimed Redneck Revolt violated anti-paramilitary law, among others. 

UNC has roundly rejected political violence. Dixon was placed on administrative leave on Tuesday. 

“The University of North Carolina has informed Dr. Dwayne Dixon, professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, that he has been placed on administrative leave, effective immediately, following recent reports and expressions of concern regarding alleged advocacy of politically motivated violence,” Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications Dean Stoyer said in a statement to Fox News Digital Monday afternoon. “Placing Dr. Dixon on leave will allow the University to investigate these allegations in a manner that protects the integrity of its assessment.”