An explosive scandal is brewing at Kansas State University after revelations that a civil rights investigator is linked to the Kansas Socialist Book Club, a radical group that has openly called for the “complete and total destruction” of Israel. The Kansas Socialist Book Club, founded in 2022, praises Hamas, defends terrorist attacks, and mocks murdered Israeli civilians—all while one of its apparent members, Derron Borders, holds a taxpayer-funded position in the university’s civil rights and Title IX office.
Borders joined the office in May 2024 and is one of just five followers of the book club on GitHub. He is also co-secretary of the Flint Hills Democratic Socialists of America, which has partnered with the group for events. In a manifesto, the Kansas Socialist Book Club declared “unwavering support” for Hamas and dismissed murdered Israelis as the “Zionist middle class,” stating, “We have no sympathy for their casualties or losses.”
Borders himself participated in a May 30 virtual meeting where the group discussed the assassination of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, D.C. Rather than condemning the act, Borders worried the killings were unlikely to inspire a broader uprising. “It feels like a temporary blip, and I don’t think much movement’s going to come from this,” he said.
Kansas State’s hiring decision raises serious concerns, especially given that the Trump administration sanctioned schools enabling anti-Semitic activity. The university praised Borders’s “wealth of experience” in civil rights, but his record includes defending Hamas’s October 7 massacre as “resistance.” As the Kansas Socialist Book Club itself declared, “We remain steadfast in our support of Palestinian liberation, whatever that ends up looking like.”
