Professor Watchlist

Michael Alvard is an associate professor and Cultural Anthropology Program Coordinator at Texas A&M University.

In June of 2020, Alvard was arrested while protesting at the Lawrence Sullivan Ross statue on campus. The Young Democratic Socialists of America at Texas A&M posted his $3,000 bail which may have violated university rules on approved student organizations using personal banking accounts. Alvard released a statement to a local news station, KTBX, alleging that the statue represents “institutional racism” and Ross’ life “represented ethnic cleansing, violence, slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow racism.” In his statement, he also insinuated that police officers regularly harm and kill black Americans.

“I’m a white male of privilege. Yesterday, I knew that the police would not kill me or throw me to the ground or stomp on my neck. I can afford to post bail. I’m not the story. The story is the lives of black people and other people of color in our community who must suffer day-in and day-out with the institutional racism that the Ross statue represents.” 

Alvard liberally shares his views on his social media, connecting Mount Rushmore to white supremacy, sharing guides of how to tear down statues, and most strikingly, boasting how he lectures his students on how America is a systematically racist nation.