A student at Georgia Southern University has triggered a controversy that has led to her being fired from her job and charges that she has engaged in hate speech after criticizing protesters at the University of Missouri. Emily Faz, a senior, was critical of social media postings where Missouri protesters objected that the terrorist attacks in Paris were taken too much media attention away from their story.
Various media sites reported how Missouri protesters were posting angry messages about the fact that attention had shifted to Paris following the massacre. Some of the messages and tweets included:
“Racist white people kill me, you want everyone to have sympathy for YOUR tragedy, but you have none for ours,” one user tweeted, adding “#Mizzou.”
“Disgusted @ white conservative Americans using Paris as a ‘see black people, your woes here w/ us could be more extreme,’ but not surprised.”
Many protesters, including Black Lives Matter national leaders, said the racial injustice at college campuses and the attacks in Paris were both acts of terrorism.
“Interesting how the news reports are covering the Paris terrorist attacks but said nothing abut the terrorist attack at #Mizzou.”
“Paris attacks were terrorism. black students getting death threats on their college campuses (A SUPPOSED SAFE SPACE!!) is also TERRORISM.”
Many people was shocked by the sentiments expressed in such messages, including Faz who went to social media to complain. She shared a published story (here) and lashed out at the protesters:
“I swear if I see this B.S. at Southern I will make you regret even knowing what a movement or a hashtag is, and you’ll walk away with your tail tucked. The whole black lives matter movement is misguided and out of hand. Maybe no one likes or takes y’all seriously because no one can see past your egotistical [expletive]. Some people might just look past it, but fair warning I am not one. All lives matter, that has always been the case, and you part of the problem if you think other wise [sic].”
Various students at GSU accused Faz of “hate speech” and threatening violence. I do not take the tweet in that sense. The statement “you’ll walk away with your tail tucked” seems rather obvious hyperbole. Her comments appear largely directed at those students (who clearly do not reflect the views of all Black Lives Matter protesters) who objected to the coverage of the massacres. Her language is chosen poorly to be sure in issuing a “fair warning” but her added comments that “all lives matter” take away from the notion of an actual threat of violence.
A campaign ensured targeting Faz, including posting her telephone number and her work location. One user stated “We gotta find this Emil Faz.” Others called for her to be expelled.
The campaign worked after the number of the manager for Wild Wings Cafe was posted. The restaurant prompted fired Faz even though she had made no reference to the restaurant in her tweet.
The GSU NAACP in response staged a “Black Out, Walk Out” on Tuesday and issued demands to the school, including hiring more black professors and expanding the African Studies program.
In the meantime, Jean Bartels, GSU’s interim president, is quoted as saying that some of the speech circulating over the past 24 hours (including the original post) “has resulted in a call for disciplinary action against the speaker.” She added “will not tolerate behavior that is in violation with our Student Code of Conduct.”
It is not clear what discipline had been imposed on Faz and the basis for the university in meting out such punishment. The story is part of a trend that civil libertarians see in the erosion of free speech on campuses.
As I discussed yesterday, there is a growing concern over a double standard in addressing controversial statements made on campus or on social media. We recently discussed the case of Saida Grundy, an incoming assistant professor of sociology and African-American studies at Boston University who released a series of tweets denounced by many as racist and sexist, including calling white males the main problem on college campuses and admitting how she tries not to buy anything from white people. While many called for Grundy to be fired, some of us defended her racist and sexist comments as an exercise of free speech done outside of her teaching responsibilities. However at the time, I noted “released a series of tweets denounced by many as racist and sexist. “White masculinity isn’t a problem for america’s colleges, white masculinity is THE problem for america’s colleges.” Now we have such a case and it does appear to confirm some of our concerns that the same standard is not applied to those with opposing views. Duke University professor Jerry Hough has faced called for termination as racist. Meanwhile a Memphis professor, Zandria Robinson, triggered the same debate after denouncing whites and insisting that “whiteness is most certainly and inevitably terror.” However, in Robinson’s case, she was rehired by Rhodes College, which seemed to view her controversial comments as a positive element supporting her appointment.
The point is not to support any of these comments but to raise again how universities respond to controversial statements from students and faculty. There appears to be no consistent or coherent standard being applied in such cases. Moreover, the free speech implications are increasingly dismissed in this debate.
What do you think?
Frankie & Paul,
Yes. I did mistake Georgia Southern University (GSU) for Grambling State University (GSU: a HBCU). I do apologize for that 😱
Nevertheless, it makes my point even more. The amount of hatred being spewed by the black students toward Emily, for exercising her free speech rights, (apparently at the wrong place, wrong timing, etc), at a majority white institution proves my point even more. You would think that she was attending an HBCU.
Emily chose the wrong place and time to ‘pick or fight her battle.’ She would’ve been better off making those comments over Thanksgiving Dinner in her home. I promise you that she did not expect this backlash (and least not the death threats, and/ or being let go by her job and maybe the university disciplining her?).
To the mod who deleted my comment: Heckuva free-speech blog you’ve got here.
No kidding.
The point is that RWL didn’t bother to find out. Which would’ve taken less time that it took to type a craptastic comment.
I think that RWL mistook GSU for a HBC.
Thanks Karen. I thought it fit.
I love how she gets singled out but the tweets from BLM don’t.
Is Georgia Southern a state school? A state actor deprived this person the right of free speech on campus. Sounds like a civil rights suit under Section 1983 is in order.
Clinch – I finally was able to view that video on my phone. Awesome. I’m stealing it. 🙂
This reminds me of the decay of the Roman Empire.
This sounds like something out of The Onion . I am just stunned that we have reached the point where Black Lives Matter can cause repercussions against those who respond that all lives matter. They can make astonishingly callous statements that a poop Swastika is somehow similar to people getting gunned down in a terrorist attack.
As has been stated multiple times, we still do not know why the poop Swastika was even drawn. Neo Nazis would not likely deface a symbol they revere. It would be like a Christian drawing a poop cross. It makes no sense. It sounds more likely that some inebriated guy drew it to cause a furor. Or perhaps it was a message on what he thought of racists or Nazis.
In any case, to not only make such a thoughtless remark, that it was in any way similar to people actually dying, but to get someone fired for criticizing such, is shocking. I feel like I’m down the rabbit hole. A woman’s studies professor assaults and silences two young women for stating their opinions, a communications professor calls out for “muscle” to intimidate or harm a journalist covering a protest, and now someone gets fired for criticizing protestors for being upset that 6 coordinated terrorist attacks in France took away their attention.
This is crazy, but it’s really happening. And universities, bastions of free speech and critical thinking, are feeding this behavior.
So what do we do now? Besides get a bowl of popcorn and a glass of wine to watch the circus?
Black Lies Matter
1. Affirmative action constitutes American freedom.
2. Affirmative action is necessary because Americans are not superior.
3. Blacks are the only people to ever be called a derisive name or be made fun of.
4. Blacks are only concerned with the content of their character.
5. Black “success” is based entirely and exclusively on qualification and merit.
6. Blacks are not concerned with and rarely notice or mention the color of their skin.
7. Blacks would never even consider “playing the race card.”
Rick, were Huxley’s prognostications skewed by his ingestion of mescaline and LSD? Apparently he was successfully peer reviewed.
Excuse me. May I make a few brief comments on this subject? Allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Abraham Lincoln.
To wit,
“If all earthly power were given me,” said Lincoln in a speech delivered in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854, “I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution [of slavery]. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia, to their own native land.” “…he asked whether freed blacks should be made “politically and socially our equals?” “My own feelings will not admit of this,” he said, “and [even] if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not … We can not, then, make them equals.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dJJltIuVXpM
EFU,
You didn’t read my statement about me going into a KKK rally and stating: I hate the KKK? It is not about free speech; it’s about knowing the when’s, where’s, how’s and why’s to pick your battles. I am old school, and I was taught that there are 3 things you don’t discuss in public: religion, politics, and race. If things don’t go my way, then I don’t protest. I sue (if it can be resolved in court). If I don’t win in court, then I count my loses and move on (this is not the 1800s or early to mid 1900s. I don’t need to take to the streets. You need a graduate degree, a few connections, years of experience, and Christ to ‘make it in The 21st Century America’ as a black man. I have this. In this day and age, you cannot afford to jeopardize your career/job by being locked up or on TV as if you haven’t had any sleep in days or looking like you are hung over. I also don’t have the intellect or high powered friends as Dr. Cornell West, in which I can be locked up many times, and still hold a prestigious job as an Ivy League College Professor, write several books, be one of the most sought after public speaker, etc)
If Black Lives Mattser is a movement that cannot be criticized then it is not a movement for freedom but rather a racist organization that wants to destroy freedom. No one is above criticism.
“formerindianajudge:” Turley writes volumes of valuable articles regularly, so I don’t mind his grammar errors. Conversely, you post one line of criticism with at least two grammar errors.
Pot, meet kettle.
Let me guess:
The big one, pictured below, ate the small one, pictured above, as punishment?
So, RWL, you attend a predominantly black college and therefore shouldn’t speak her mind, and if she does, she should expect that her opinion may result in backlash? SO much for free speech. Black Lives Matter students go into a library, shout “white mother f&&&ckers”, and a member of the staff APOLOGIZES TO THEM FOR THE MEDIA PORTRAYING IT IN A NEGATIVE LIGHT. I’m sure you’re ok with that, though, right? You, my friend, are proof that you and yours don’t want “equality”, you want “preferential treatment”, and although you’re getting it now, TRUST ME, you will soon run into opposition you are not prepared for. BTW, if a black student attends a predominantly white university, and says “black lives matter and white people are racists”, I’m sure you would defend the university for throwing him or her off the campus right? I mean, you know, since its just about “equality”….