A resurfaced 2018 panel hosted by Harvard University’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights is drawing attention after three faculty members praised a guest speaker who defended armed left-wing political violence.
The panel, titled “You Don’t Stand Around and Let People Get Hurt: Antifascism After Charlottesville,” featured Professor Dwayne Dixon of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dixon was placed on administrative leave Monday following reports of his activism with the far-left gun group Redneck Revolt.
FIRST ON FOX: UNC professor Dwayne Dixon is a self-professed member of Redneck Revolt, according to the far-left gun club, which was once described in a lawsuit as a “paramilitary" group.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 27, 2025
The Counter Extremism Project lists Redneck Revolt as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun… pic.twitter.com/zzh0Xog0Ro
Video of the event was pulled from the Carr-Ryan Center’s YouTube page after UNC announced Dixon’s leave.
Harvard faculty members who participated in the discussion included Education Professor Timothy McCarthy, American History and African American Studies Professor Vincent Brown, and American History Professor Lisa McGirr.
Brown, who introduced Dixon, said, “Many of you are aware of the ongoing vigorous debate over whether it’s OK to punch a Nazi. I personally happen to believe that the ethical question was settled by WWII and Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
These are really high figures across the board!
— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) September 27, 2025
What makes them worse is that plenty of moderates and large numbers of people on the left think random non-Nazis are Nazis, and thus acceptable to punch. pic.twitter.com/eFs2IRfDTC
He added, “All four of [the panel members] are committed to study, interpretation and reasoned debate, but are well aware that deliberation might have distinct limits in the face of opponents who would prefer to see us eliminated.”
Dixon spoke for roughly 30 minutes, presenting Redneck Revolt as a group confronting neo-Nazis, White supremacists, and fascists during the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
While neo-Nazi groups were present, critics have noted that such labels have also been directed at ordinary conservatives and supporters of President Donald Trump for years.
Neither Dixon nor the Harvard faculty distinguished between extremist groups and mainstream right-leaning Americans.
During his remarks, McCarthy linked the Trump administration to fascism, stating that LGBTQ people had “a sense, perhaps quite real, that we are indeed at war and that this is a different kind of phase of war that is more specific, more linked to domestic insurgency of White supremacy, the rise of that, a fascist state under the Trump-Pence regime.”
He also described the moment as “an emergent fascist moment with all the signs of that from history that if we’re paying attention.”
Dixon referenced abolitionist Frederick Douglass in his argument.
“We’re given the enemy, the White supremacist capitalist slave farmer and the means to act. Douglass is not 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 plainly says the system must be met with its own weapons,” he said.
McCarthy later suggested that violent measures could be justified, saying, “This may indeed be a moment that calls for a more robust integration of tactics and strategies that include both violence and nonviolence.”
McGirr, who initially expressed doubts, ultimately endorsed Dixon’s message.
“This was a beautiful, brilliant, wonderful, very convincing talk. So, you know, I actually came in here relatively skeptical about your use of, you know, coming armed to Charlottesville, and what happened in North Carolina,” she said.
“And at the end, I’m kind of convinced, actually, you know, that there is a place for this.”
Redneck Revolt, which the Counter Extremism Project describes as a “far-left group” that “claims to be a community defense group against racism and fascism,” was sued by the city of Charlottesville for allegedly violating an anti-paramilitary law after the 2017 rally.
The group entered into a consent decree to avoid trial. It later disbanded in 2019, according to a message posted on its website.
In announcing Dixon’s administrative leave, UNC condemned political violence.
The episode comes as Harvard faces separate disputes with the Trump administration over federal funding.
Earlier this year, President Trump froze $2.4 billion in grants to the university amid campus protests and concerns over antisemitism.
This week, Trump confirmed that a deal had been reached to restore funding, with the university agreeing to allocate $500 million toward trade schools.
“We’re in the process of getting very close, and [Secretary of Education] Linda [McMahon] is finishing up the final details, and they’d be paying about $500 million,” Trump said.
“And they’ll be operating trade schools, and they’ll be teaching people how to do AI and lots of other things. Engines, lots of things.”
Trump-Harvard dispute settled with $500 million deal
— The Asian Chronicle (@AsianChronicle) October 1, 2025
The Ivy League institution will set up trade schools.
"And they'll be paying about $500 million and they'll be operating trade schools. They're going to be teaching people how to do AI and lots of other things, engines, lots… pic.twitter.com/GZ6ZwWxpBw
