Dr. Derek Hook is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During a lecture for the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (AAPCSW), Dr. Hook stated that it’s ethical for white people to die in order to atone for apartheid in South Africa.

Apartheid rule consisted of a series of discriminatory laws enforced along racial lines against black South Africans by the ruling white minority. It is widely considered to have ended with the election of dissident Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa in 1994. The nation has since been plagued with economic crises, endemic poverty, and social unrest.

Many white South Africans, also known as “Boers,” have suffered what are known as “farm attacks.” Victims believe the attacks are conducted with prejudice and that assailants are overlooked by the South African government. This suspicion is seemingly validated by a recent report demonstrating that white farmers are the victims of murders at far higher rates than the rest of the country’s population. The violence is so pronounced that nations like the United States and Australia have offered aid to farmers suffering from the violence.

Despite denials of ongoing persecution, the ruling government continues to exacerbate the crises in the country. In 2018, the South African government amended its constitution to allow for the forcible confiscation of property from white farmers without compensation. Members of parliament have lauded the government’s policy as “cutting the throat of whiteness.”

In a video lecture for the AAPCSW—and captured by Twitter user, Mythinformed MKE—Dr. Hook can be heard advocating for the end of whiteness in South Africa in a similar fashion. The video begins with Dr. Hook reading a quote questioning whether white people can ever be integrated into the country’s black majority. He states, “the only way for white people to become part of Africa is to not exist as white people anymore”.

He continues, “the goal has to be to dismantle white culture and ultimately white people themselves.” Dr. Hook further states the “death of white people” is necessary for integration to be successful;

After finishing, Dr. Hook argues there is something “ethical” about the passage he just read.

Dr. Hook further advocates for a “symbolic extinction” of white people to be achieved by the “castration of whiteness.”

The full remarks may be listened to below.

Professor of Psychology at Duquesne University Derek Hook, defends the quote “white people should commit suicide as an ethical act” as an “opportunity” to “castrate whiteness”.

This is part of an “anti-racist” discussion on “nice white therapists” held by AAPCSW. pic.twitter.com/IL839IjUCV

— Mythinformed MKE (@MythinformedMKE) August 25, 2021

Much of Dr. Hook’s work surrounds the study of the term “whiteness.” In one paper, he comments that professor Robin DiAngelo’s concept of “white fragility” does not go far enough, as it is insufficiently “destabilizing” to whiteness in post-apartheid South Africa.

Dr. DiAngelo’s concept of white fragility accuses all white Americans of internalizing white supremacy. White Americans—according to DiAngelo—will therefore work to maintain their racism and preserve racist structures and the benefits they confer. Dr. DiAngelo’s full profile may be viewed on TPUSA’s Professor Watchlist.

The clip is a portion of Dr. Hook’s lecture in the “anti-racist” discussion on “nice white therapists” that occurred during an AAPCSW conference. Following the publication of Dr. Hook’s remarks, the AAPCSW proceeded to remove all videos of the conference from their Youtube page.

The Professor Watchlist Team reached out to Dr. Hook for comment but have not received a response by the time of publication.

Students and Parents may contact the Department of Psychology at Duquesne University at (412) 396-6520 or at psychology@duq.edu.

Update – The Professor Watchlist Team has received a response to our inquiry from Gabriel Welsch, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Duquesne. In a statement, the University has described our documentation of Dr. Hook’s statements as “ridiculous” and “reckless.” They further claim that Dr. Hook is a “highly respected expert” who does not advocate for violence. The University then accuses the Professor Watchlist team of taking Dr. Hook’s lecture out of context—despite the full context of the audio clip being included in the profile—to, “falsely illustrate advocacy for extreme behavior.”

The full text of the University’s response is provided below:

“The statement attributed to Professor Hook is ridiculous and reckless. He did not make a statement advocating anything like what was suggested. In fact, he said that the statement in question was “crazy.”

Professor Hook also said that the provocateur who used this example was wrong in suggesting any such radical action. The words being circulated were simply lifted out of context to distort the actual comments. Saying that Professor Hook called for anything like the words in question is false.

Duquesne University is a Catholic institution that condemns any suggestion that suicide is to be advocated or endorsed in any form.

Professor Hook’s presentation was part of an invited online talk Professor Hook gave to the Baltimore-based American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (AAPCSW), an international association for psychoanalytic social workers. It happened in June. While some of the content in the recording certainly contained troubling elements if taken alone, the full discussion only references the work of another person (Terblanche Delport, as the slides indicate) and the extreme proposition in the context of post-Apartheid South Africa.

Professor Hook did not advocate taking the extreme measures Delport described. Professor Hook is not advocating, nor does he advocate violence. His effort to understand how extreme thought is developed is the point of the presentation.

Professor Hook’s expertise is in psychoanalysis, and his work considers psychoanalytic dimensions of racism in America and South Africa. He is a highly respected expert, and it is disappointing that his efforts to understand and challenge ideas that are admittedly extreme are being shared out of context to falsely illustrate an advocacy for extreme behavior.

Thank you for your inquiry.

Gabe”

Updated – September 2, 2021