The Roots of Progressive Radicalism: Nellie Bowles vs. Musa al-Gharbi

On 2 June, Philadelphia’s annual Pride parade came to a sudden stop at the intersection of 11^th and Locust Streets, when participants found their route blocked by a group of anti-Pride activists. A generation ago, one might have supposed these agitators were social conservatives railing against the “homosexual lifestyle.” But this being 2024, the aggrieved mob turned out to consist of fellow progressives organised under the auspices of an anti-Israel group called “Queers4Palestine.” In the viral footage that emerged from the confrontation, the group’s members can be seen shouting slogans such as “No pride in genocide” and (the decidedly less catchy) “Pride as we know it cannot be separated from our current political and economic climate.” In other words, no one is allowed to have fun—because Gaza.

Two days later, The New York Times Magazine published a lengthy investigative profile of Ibram X. Kendi, America’s most prominent anti-racist activist and academic. As Rachel Poser writes in her Times feature, Kendi’s star has dimmed considerably over the last year, following news that he laid off over half the employees at his recently inaugurated Boston University Center for Antiracist Research.