10/3/25 Statement from Dr. Dixon:

We have been successful in defeating this attempt to suppress my free speech. This was always an issue that threatens all of us. I'm deeply grateful to the many people who leapt courageously to this struggle. In challenging this suspension, my goals were twofold: most urgently, to return to my classrooms and continue the important work of critically examining the world and our relationship to it with my smart, thoughtful, and curious students. Secondly, I wanted to disabuse UNC's leaders of the notion that they can infringe on our constitutional right to speak and assemble as we choose.

The administration will likely attempt to claim that I was placed on leave for "safety reasons" and point to my past actions in defense of people protesting white supremacy. UNC leaders, in their eagerness to ban me from my classroom and campus, embody the real danger to our rights, as they rush to appease those who seek to choke diversity of political thought.

I believe in the anarchist principles of direct democracy, autonomy of thought and action, and horizontal community. Indeed, my removal from campus, a crisis created by the feckless decisions of UNC administrators, has been a beautiful opportunity to witness these principles take shape in our community. Through our vast network of care, courage, and creativity, we have lifted up a defiant message: we will not be deterred in ensuring that free speech and debate are defended.

Throughout my years at UNC-Chapel Hill, I have sought to build trust with my colleagues and students through honesty, fairness, humility, respect and open communication. The actions of UNC's leaders betray what I had believed to be shared values in the best traditions of this institution. The actions of the administration signal to faculty and students alike that we should think with trepidation and speak with fear, lest some unnamed accusers target us for administrative discipline, or with threats, or worse. I will not be intimidated. With the solidarity and help of so many, I wish to enact another possibility: one of vibrant, conscientious, ethical engagement, without fear of reprisal or silencing.

I am overjoyed to be reinstated so that I may return to the beloved campus from which I had been banned for resolutely advocating anti-racism and anti-fascism. I will continue to speak and act for the freedom of all people, everywhere.

FREE PALESTINE.

Dwayne Dixon, Ph.D. Teaching Associate Professor Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies UNC-Chapel Hill