U. PENN GROVELS: University Fires The World's Best Political Cartoonist, 'Mr. Fish'
Emblematic of the cowardice of today’s ruling class, they didn’t even have the courage — or decency — to deliver the dismissal personally, or even by phone. Instead, Mr. Fish found out about by email.
Mr. Fish should have been awarded the Pulitzer years ago, but my quess is members of the Pulitzer board have no idea of his work: “Mr. Fish? I think I had lunch there once.”
By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink (5/8/25)
I don’t know how I missed this story of the March firing of noted political cartoonist Mr. Fish (pen name of Dwayne Booth) from his teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania on false accusations of making anti-semitic art.
It’s no surprise the case was ignored by mainstream corporate media, but I follow a variety of alternative news sites and podcasts and until Mark Steiner’s interview this past Tuesday on the Real News Network below, I had heard nothing about it.
Many readers may know of Mr. Fish through his collaboration with The Chris Hedges Report, where he regularly provides powerful imagery such as this recent example.
The axing of Mr. Fish from his position at U-Penn, where he had taught for 11 years, is yet another case in the nationwide purge of faculty and students on trumped up accusations of anti-semitism, which is gutting out the legitimacy of the nation’s university system.
J. Larry Jameson, interim president of the University of Pennsylvania, denounced Booth’s illustrations as “reprehensible.”
Blind to his own hypocrisy and emblematic of the cowardice of most university managers, Jameson couldn’t scrape up the courage — or decency — to deliver the dismissal personally, or even by phone. Instead, Mr. Fish found out about his firing by e-mail.
Talk about “reprehensible.”
And cowardly. All too typical of far too many university managers these days.
I have long admired the work of Mr. Fish. His work spans the range from simple pencil scratchings to beautifully rendered, highly detailed paintings and kick-ass graphics. I have never seen an artist with such high productive mastery of such a wide variety of mediums and on-target messaging.
His U-Penn students were lucky to have such a teacher, and have now been deeply betrayed by their campus managers.
At the time of his firing, Mr. Fish, noted:
“The cowardice and complete lack of courage demonstrated by the UPenn administration has ruined the lives of a great number of professors and students whom I know personally, as if the total capitulation to the demands of MAGA thugs and bullies will somehow eventually ameliorate the suffering and deter the collapse of higher education.”
I learned of Mr. Fish’s sacking soon after hearing of former Washington Post cartoonist Anne Telnaes winning this year’s Pulitizer Prize for cartooning. Telnaes resigned from her position late last year when her editors quashed a cartoon nailing paper owner Jeff Bezos for his cringe obsequious cozying up to Donald Trump.
Mr. Fish should have been awarded the Pulitzer years ago, but my quess is members of the Pulitzer board have no idea of his work: “Mr. Fish? I think I had lunch there once.”
The grimy toxic cloud of censorship darkening the United States is one of the most obvious signs of the growing fascist state. If we don’t stand firm and break — no, shatter — the fascist Zionist grip on this nation, we are condemned to a national tyranny that will eventually make Hitler’s Nazi rule look like summer camp. Hell, we already have a genocide, illegal arbitrary detention, suspension of the law, disappearances and concentration camps. Voices like Mr. Fish are essential to our survival.
To that point, this cartoon by Mr. Fish captures the grisly reality of the moment we are at. A reality we all need to wake up to and resist.
“The Children of Gaza” by Mr. Fish
Mr. Fish Speaks Out About His Firing From The University Of Pennsylvania
How to respond to the repressive crackdown on art and dissent as genocide is unfolding and fascism is rising.
By Marc Steiner
The Real News Network (5/6/25)
World-renowned political cartoonist Dwayne Booth, more commonly known as Mr. Fish, has found himself in the crosshairs of the new McCarthyist assault on free expression and higher education. While employed as a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, Booth became a target of Zionist and pro-Israel critics, and his work became a flashpoint of controversy in the months leading up to his firing in March. Facing charges that certain cartoons contained anti-Semitic tropes, J. Larry Jameson, interim president of the University of Pennsylvania, denounced Booth’s illustrations as “reprehensible.”
In a statement about his firing, Booth writes: “The reality – and something that, unfortunately, is not unique to Penn – is that colleges and universities nationwide have been way too complicit with the largely Republican-led efforts to target students and faculty members engaged in any and all speech rendered in support of trans/black/immigrant, and women’s rights, free speech, the independent press, academic freedom, and medical research – speech that also voices bold criticism of right-wing nationalism, genocide, apartheid, fascism, and specifically the Israeli assault on Palestine.”
In this special edition of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc sits down with Booth in the TRNN studio in Baltimore to discuss the events that led to his firing, the purpose and effects of political art, and how to respond to the repressive crackdown on art and dissent as genocide is unfolding and fascism is rising.
Link to story and 54-minute video
Mr. Fish: Laid Off!
Mr. Fish (3/20/25)
As predicted by colleagues, comrades, fellow contrarians, my own gut, and friends, I was laid off from the University of Pennsylvania yesterday. The news was delivered to me by email, not a phone call or an in-person campus meeting, despite the fact that I’ve been teaching at the Annenberg School for Communication for 11 years with a great deal of love and a deep commitment to my students and the radical humanitarianism I try to display daily in the artwork that you all so graciously support. That said, I can only assume there's been a great deal of panic and anxiety going on behind closed doors at the university as the GOP attempts to destroy any and all institutions with the potential to challenge the disorienting attacks on democracy and academia by right-wing nationalists.
I was informed that the reason for the termination was budgetary, which I think is the same reason they gave to Jesus just before they crucified him, and Malcolm X just before they shot him, and what they told Eugene Debs, Susan B. Anthony, and Lenny Bruce just before jailing them. I jest, of course. I know it was budgetary as I was not alone in the purge. The reality – and something that, unfortunately, is not unique to Penn – is that colleges and universities nationwide have been way too complicit with the largely Republican-led efforts to target students and faculty members engaged in any and all speech rendered in support of trans/black/immigrant, and women’s rights, free speech, the independent press, academic freedom, and medical research – speech that also voices bold criticism of right-wing nationalism, genocide, apartheid, fascism, and specifically the Israeli assault on Palestine.
In fact, the University of Pennsylvania has spent the last year and a half willfully handing over the private emails of professors and students to congressional committees tasked with crushing open debate, honest inquiry, and dissent on the campus and then targeting those who refuse to cooperate with these draconian censorship tactics by threatening them with suspension, expulsion, or dismissal.
The cowardice and complete lack of courage demonstrated by the UPenn administration has ruined the lives of a great number of professors and students whom I know personally, as if the total capitulation to the demands of MAGA thugs and bullies will somehow eventually ameliorate the suffering and deter the collapse of higher education.
In the meantime, as I hustle to make up the missing income by amplifying my voice of dissent and turning up the volume on my pen of provocation, I’m in the process of putting together a Substack channel [here] that will feature a weekly podcast focused on A) interviewing all the writers, revolutionaries, poets, painters, filmmakers, professors, public intellectuals, cartoonists, activists, journalists, comedians, and musicians I dig and B) producing an art-heavy lecture series build around my perspectives on history, culture, politics, and resistance. After all, I won't have a lecture hall anymore and I have to do something with these diatribes - ha! (Those of you who have read my books – particularly Nobody Left – know how deep I like to go with my interviews of famous riffraff!)
I’m meeting with my producer/engineer on Saturday morning and will start assembling the studio and gathering the necessary gear – what fun! It’ll be Patreon for art and Substack for words, that’s what I’m thinking!
Okay, there’s your update for now and while being fired and losing 3k a month to the fascist monsters devouring campuses everywhere is a bit of a blow, I remain blessed by your presence in my life and thrill to your continued support as I build the Fish empire brick by brick into something capable of housing us all as the storm rages outside.
In solidarity! Dig it.
Fish
The Independent Ink: Mr. Fish In Conversation With Chris Hedges
On art and the politics of art.
[Editors Note: This is an interesting interview but especially note the discussion at the end about the path to true political and economic change and what the left is missing in organizing and true change. — M. Taylor]
The Independent Ink (5/7/25)
Mr. Fish and Chris Hedges discuss art and journalism and how each has the potential to contribute to the preservation and perpetuation of a saner society.
60-minute video
Cartoonist Mr. Fish: 'I got death threats from the left ... [and] right'
“I approach my work with an outlaw mentality because I don’t trust the law”
Yahoo News (10/18/18)
Shocking, offensive, truthful: These are all words that have been used to describe the work of controversial cartoonist Mr. Fish – aka Dwayne Booth. Fish, as he prefers to be called, is known for his bold imagery and variation of style, and a satirical sense of humor that pulls no punches. "I've been called a political cartoonist, but really I'm a son of a b***h," Fish says.
10-minute video
Pass it along…
The Art Of Mr. Fish The Fascists Are Terrified Of You Seeing…
“I’ve witnessed – and experienced! – the decline of journalism as a provocative force for the preservation and propagation of democracy, itself, for without uncensored discourse over the most substantive issues of our time a republic of the people, by the people, and for the people cannot stand.”
— Mr. Fish, Why Subscribe To The Independent Ink?
This is so awful. One of the best cartoonists for a long time.
I will be delighted to read his substack posts.
We should all support Mr Fish.
Thanks Mark.
Mr. Fish is a freakin' genius! I'm so tired of this witch hunt of people with a conscience by the baby-killing witch hunters, aka zy0nists.