A Rutgers University professor and his family are trying to leave the United States in the wake of death threats. Their flight was inexplicably canceled as they were about to board the plane Wednesday. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
A Rutgers University history professor and his family tried to flee to Spain Wednesday following growing death threats because of his teachings on anti-fascism, but found their flight had been suddenly canceled.
Mark Bray, who has published several books on the history of anti-fascist movements, has been the target of right-wing and white-supremacist groups. Many of them call him “Dr. Antifa.”
When the death threats became too much and he feared for the safety of his family, he decided to move to Spain for the rest of the school year and teach remotely. But when Bray and his wife and two children were about to board their flight at Newark Liberty International Airport, the airline told him “the reservation was just canceled.” The reason for the cancellation was not immediately clear.
Bray said the airline rebooked them for a flight leaving Thursday. “I may sound conspiratorial, but I don’t think it is a coincidence,” he told the Washington Post. “We’re at a hotel and we’re just going to try again.”
Soon after the death of Charlie Kirk, right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec called Bray a “domestic terrorist professor” on X. Then the Rutgers chapter of Turning Point USA began circulating a petition accusing him of being a member of antifa and calling for him to be fired.
Bray said he’s not a participant in any groups.
“My role in this is as a professor,” he told The New York Times in an interview on Wednesday. “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.”
Fox News reported on the petition to have him fired, then someone on social media reported his home address. Since then, he’s gotten several death threats, including one that vowed to kill him in front of his students.
Rutgers said it would provide extra on-campus security, but he still worried about the safety of his family at home. Bray is also a historian of modern Spain, and his latest book is, The Anarchist Inquisition: Assassins, Activists and Martyrs in Spain and France.
Bray told the Washington Post that he knows of other professors in the United States who have left the country and he knows some who are looking for jobs in Canada or England.
When the Post asked the White House about threats against Bray, a statement said: “Examples of Democrat violence are plentiful. The Trump Administration is focused on stopping this violence — Democrats are fueling it.”
