Danny Shaw, who has lived in the Bronx since 1996, has taken numerous hits in the ring as a former heavyweight boxer — and he’s now fighting for his academic career in the wake of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
After 18 years of teaching Latinx Studies and international affairs at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Shaw, 46, was fired in April. Though he says he never received a full explanation for his firing or evidence of a policy he violated, he believes the problem stemmed from social media posts from his personal accounts.
The Bronx Times reached out to John Jay for comment, and a spokesperson replied that the college could not comment on personnel matters.
Shaw did not hide or tamper down his pro-Palestinian views — and said he understood the risks before posting. With almost 20,000 Instagram followers and even more on X (formerly known as Twitter), some posts have gone viral, including one from October 2023 that reads, “The Bronx says no to the extermination of the Palestinian people” in which Shaw appears on video describing the war as “David versus a genocidal Goliath.”
While his social media content and life’s work addresses a wide range of international issues, the current conflict and the United States’ response to it — which he has followed for decades — prompted Shaw to come out swinging, regardless of the consequences.
He participated in the protests and encampments at his undergraduate alma mater, Columbia University, was arrested during protests at City College and now faces an uncertain future following his termination from John Jay.
‘All about the underdog’
Over the course of three interviews with the Bronx Times, Shaw discussed how his Bronx upbringing informed his life, work and views on the war that has divided opinions around the world.
Shaw grew up poor, raised by a single mother, who appeared alongside him in a recent mini documentary by the news network Al Jazeera. Shaw said his sense of commonality with the Palestinian people dates back to the 1990s when his mother gave him books on the history between that country and Israel.
He viewed the situation in sporting terms, as well as Bronx terms. “It’s all about the underdog,” Shaw said.
As he learned more, he said he “began to make the connection” between Palestine, Puerto Rico, Haiti and other countries that have existed under the rule of more powerful nations. He learned four other languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole and Cape Verdean Kriolu.
Shaw made his way on scholarship through college at Columbia University and graduate school at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. As he entered into a career in academia — which included middle and high schools in the Bronx, as well as the CUNY institutions Lehman College and Hostos Community College — in teaching international affairs and South American history, he said he always taught with an “anti-colonial angle.”
Shaw said his activism in support of Palestine began long before Oct. 7, 2023, the day when the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel, killing an estimated 1,200 people and capturing hundreds more. Since then, under Israel’s response, Palestinian officials estimate that 38,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in the region — but Israeli officials say it is roughly half that amount.
“It’s not a coincidence that so many people in the Bronx have stood up for Palestine,” said Shaw. As he sees it, “Every oppressed person in the world stands with Palestine.”
Although much of the media coverage of protests centered on Manhattan colleges such as Columbia University and City College, the Bronx has also seen its share of pro-Palestinian protest activity. At a May protest at Fordham Plaza, several Jewish people joined dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators in opposition to Israel’s conduct in the war.
But some elected officials — especially Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents parts of the South Bronx — have been extremely vocal in support of Israel and of the large Jewish population of the Bronx, putting him at odds with some constituents. In a July 4 post from his personal X account, Torres said the “hyperbolic and hysterical demonization of Israel” has led to a 137% increase since 2023 in hate crimes against Jewish people in New York City.

‘I can’t say I was 100% surprised’
Shaw is no stranger to controversy; he said he and other colleagues have previously been fired for speaking out on political issues.
On May 29, he posted on X : “We do not hate any religion or people but we will do everything we can to stop a colonial genocide of a native people. Anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism.”
In response to his views, Shaw received numerous threats via email and social media calling him a Nazi, saying that he loves Hamas and that he advocates for the killing of Jews — all of which are untrue, he said. Some messages called Shaw stupid or ignorant, and others used more violent language.
“F—ing Nazi, burn in hell,” reads one message from Oct. 20, 2023. Another from the same date reads, “How I wish you’ll meet face to face with hamas and then will see how you react F—ing nazi we are not going anywhere Now let see what your boss thinks about hiring nazi [sic].”
In the face of numerous threats, “To keep going, you really have to believe in the cause,” Shaw said.
But to his knowledge, no complaints against him came from John Jay students or staff, Shaw said. He believes he was the target of external activists and that his firing “had nothing to do with John Jay.”
Even so, he said, “I can’t say I was 100% surprised when I got fired.” Shaw felt the college — where he had worked for a combined 25 years as a research assistant and professor — fired him for his personal social media while seeming to support (or at least not oppose) him behind the scenes.
‘Popular education’
Shaw met in person with the Bronx Times on a July day on the steps of his apartment building in the South Bronx. He had just finished the first of what will be many hearings through union and legal proceedings to contest his firing from John Jay.
He said he believes his case against the college could have national significance, as many public and private institutions grapple with the boundaries of free speech — an age-old issue that has taken on new heat in a highly polarized political era.
Although Shaw said his firing has been “extremely disruptive” to his life and routine, he is using the opportunity to spend more time with his sons, ages 17 and 22, and has rededicated himself to working with people struggling with drug addiction as their “sober companion.”
Shaw is an addict in recovery — sober since 2007, he said — and is increasingly concerned about the opioid epidemic in the Bronx. The borough has the state’s third highest rate of overdose deaths between 2010 and 2020, according to a 2022 report by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
Several of his older son’s childhood friends are no longer around because they fell in with drugs, Shaw said. But in using his own experience to help those who are struggling — including some who need around-the-clock care in the throes of withdrawal — “How beautiful that it came full circle,” he said.
Shaw believes his case against John Jay could go on for years. He said he will apply to other jobs in academia, but he considers himself a teacher, no matter his employer — or without an employer at all.
He also still participates in pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the Bronx, including at military recruitment centers and the office of Rep. Torres.
“The mainstream media wants this to be good versus evil,” Shaw said. And in his opinion, “It’s our side that’s been misrepresented and misportrayed.”
No matter the venue, Shaw said he has always engaged in “popular education” at the community level. And many issues are interconnected, he said. Between the lack of affordable housing and health care, food insecurity, overpolicing, and concerns about young people, there are “a number of pandemics here in the Bronx,” he said, giving it a kind of permanent underdog status that he believes mirrors that of Palestine. “The Bronx is no stranger to inequality,” he said.
Shaw fears that the borough’s young people will bear the costs of U.S. military action around the world. Although the United States has not sent troops to the Middle East, “The military recruiters prey on the youth of the Bronx,” he said. In practical terms, he said “there is a draft” for some poor young people who have few good options other than military service.
Shaw gestured around to different parts of the South Bronx neighborhood. All his former boxing gyms have closed down, he said, because they could no longer afford rent. This one change took away a positive activity for youth and adults and signaled economic tension between the old and new. Shaw now commutes to the Castle Hill neighborhood to train at a boxing gym with no air conditioning and one large fan.
“Everything good we have here has been underfunded,” he said.
But through the Bronx’s struggles — as well as his own — “Hustling, doing everything we can, not giving up” is the Bronx way, said Shaw.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes