A Rutgers University expert on antifa tried to flee the United States with his family on Wednesday night in the wake of death threats that followed President Trump’s push to characterize the left-wing antifascist movement as a domestic terrorist organization.
But when the expert, Mark Bray, got to the gate at Newark Liberty International Airport, after getting the family’s boarding passes, checking their bags and going though security, he was told by the airline that “the reservation was just canceled,” he said late Wednesday night.
It was another hurdle for Dr. Bray, a historian who published the 2017 book “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” and who had taught courses on anti-fascism and terrorism at Rutgers in New Jersey in relative obscurity until a few weeks ago.
In the weeks after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, he has become a target of right-wing hate, accused of being a part of the movement he studied. Jack Posobiec, a right-wing influencer, called Dr. Bray a “domestic terrorist professor” on X. The Rutgers chapter of Turning Point USA then circulated a petition accusing Dr. Bray of being an “outspoken, well-known antifa member” and called for him to be fired.
The petition referred to him as “Dr. Antifa.”
“My role in this is as a professor,” Dr. Bray, an assistant teaching professor at Rutgers, said in an interview on Wednesday, hours before his planned departure. “I’ve never been part of an antifa group, and I’m not currently. There’s an effort underway to paint me as someone who is doing the things that I’ve researched, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
The furor grew after Fox News reported on the petition. Dr. Bray’s home address was revealed on social media. He received several death threats, including one vowing to kill him in front of his students.
He notified campus and local police, but with two young children, he and his wife, who is also a Rutgers professor, decided that it would be safer to relocate to Spain and teach remotely, at least for this academic year, he said.
Because of the last-minute drama at the airport, the family missed its flight. Dr. Bray said the airline rebooked them on another flight for Thursday. He said he was hoping for the best. “I may sound conspiratorial, but I don’t think it is a coincidence,” he added. “We’re at a hotel and we’re just going to try again.”
In a statement earlier Wednesday evening, Rutgers said it does not comment on personnel or student conduct matters. “Rutgers University is committed to providing a secure environment — to learn, teach, work and research — where all members of our community can share their opinions without fear of intimidation or harassment,” it added.
Dr. Bray said that the university had offered to provide security for his classes, but that he still felt his family would be at risk. He and his wife were approved to teach remotely as a result of the threats, he said.
On a Rutgers Reddit page, students have expressed sadness and shock that he was leaving. Faculty members, at Rutgers and beyond, have sent messages of support, he said.
“There is no place in American higher education for death threats against professors,” Todd Wolfson, the president of the American Association of University Professors and a Rutgers faculty member, said in a statement. “We stand with Professor Bray against this gross assault on academic freedom and freedom of speech.”
Several days after publishing the petition calling for Dr. Bray’s dismissal from Rutgers, the Turning Point USA chapter added an update saying that it did not support harassment or the doxxing of him or anyone else.
“I think that all death threats and doxxing are unjustified and not how political disputes should be resolved in civilized society,” Ava Kwan, a Turning Point USA chapter member, said in an email on Wednesday.
But she defended the broader point of the petition, saying, “I think Dr. Antifa, who believes in violence as a political tool, should be fired, of course. Taxpayer money should not fund the salaries of terrorists.”
For years, Turning Point USA has maintained a watch-list of hundreds of professors whom the group accuses of advancing leftist propaganda in the classroom. Dr. Bray is on the list.
He is mentioned in part because he has spoken about how militancy is sometimes required to counter fascism. In the introduction to his 2017 book, he wrote that he hoped his work would promote organizing against fascism, white supremacy and all forms of domination.
He has donated half his author proceeds from the book to the International Anti-Fascist Defense Fund, which supports the legal and medical costs of people who face charges pertaining to antifascist organizing, including in Eastern Europe, but it is not an antifa organization, he said.
“I consider myself an antifascist so far as I’m against fascism, but I’m not part of any of these groups,” he added.
A rival Change.org petition began circulating on Sunday, calling on the Rutgers chapter of Turning Point USA to be disbanded, accusing it of inciting violence and promoting hate speech. As of Wednesday, that petition had about 1,800 signatures, several hundred more than the original petition calling for Dr. Bray’s firing.
In addition to his work on antifa, Dr. Bray is a historian of modern Spain. His latest book, “The Anarchist Inquisition: Assassins, Activists and Martyrs in Spain and France,” explores activism that emerged in response to a wave of repression unleashed by the Spanish state to quash anarchist activities at the turn of the 20th century.
Sharon Otterman is a Times reporter covering higher education, public health and other issues facing New York City.
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