Academia, Bizarre, Free Speech

University of Houston Student Suspended And Required To Attend Cultural Events For Writing “All Lives Matter”

Unknown-1The University of Houston has offered the latest example of how free speech is being rapidly eradicated on our campuses. Rohini Sethi, vice president of the university’s student government association, was given a 50-day suspension from her student government post for saying “all lives matter” on social media. She has now been told that the suspension will be lifted after she publicly apologized and agreed to attend cultural events.

Sethi originally wrote “#ForgetBlackLivesMatter; more like AllLivesMatter.” This was done in response to the murder of five police officers. She was immediately denounced as racist and various students claimed that she had created a hostile environment by stating her viewpoint. Student government President Shane Smith responded with the draconian measures.

Now, Sethi will be allowed to return after a type of public confession that seemed more appropriate to a reeducation camp than an American campus. Sethi issued a joint statement with Smith that said that “I have chosen to take these steps on my own because of the division I’ve created among our student body,. I may have the right to post what I did, but I still should not have. My words at the time didn’t accurately convey my feeling and cause many students to lose their faith in me to advocate for them. I will always continue to learn and be ready to discuss these issues.”

So she has the right to speak but will be sanctioned if she does?

Smith is qouted in the Washington Post as saying:

“Her post and subsequent actions were very divisive. It caused some in our student body to become very upset with her. They lost faith in her ability to represent them because they felt that she did not understand or respect the struggles in their lives.”

Smith actually apologized to those who wanted more of a sanction, writing “For those that are disappointed by the change, this is a compromise based in the reality of the situation. My stance on racial injustice has always been clear. For all involved, this is truly the best outcome.” No, I do not believe it is the best outcome. The best outcome would be to respect the right of all students to speak freely.

We have previously discussed (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here) the erosion of free speech on college and university campuses as students and faculty are punished for expressing views deemed offensive to any group. In the meantime, we have also seen protests by Black Lives Matter and other groups that silence other students with little response from university administrators.

The controversy of University of Houston shows how schools are now instilling speech regulation as an accepted part of academic environments. The result is a new generation of students taught that they must conform to majoritarian or official views if they want to be educated or avoid sanctions. The primary responsibility for this rollback on free speech rests with the faculty and administrators of our schools, who have often supported such notion of speech as “microaggressions” or hostile acts under school codes.

While Sethi originally stood by her comments, she has now been brought to heel under a de facto speech code. None of this has anything to do with the merits of the rivaling views on the use of “All Lives Matter.” It deals with the right of students to engage in an open debate on such issues. I recently spoke with a student at Missouri (groundzero for the controversy over Melissa Click), for example, who told me that he no longer felt that he could even raise concerns over the demands of “Black Lives Matter” at his school. Despite his support for measures to fight inequality and racism, he said that students no longer felt that they could question even the list of demands being made by the group. This is someone who supports the effort to reform aspects of his school but still fears speaking about the issues. He noted that his faculty has also been silenced in the aftermath of the controversy. His experience is not unique as faculty and staff have succeeded in chilling the speech of those with questions or opposing views on our campuses.

127 thoughts on “University of Houston Student Suspended And Required To Attend Cultural Events For Writing “All Lives Matter””

  1. Autumn – I think you may enjoy Thomas Sowell’s essay “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”, in which he follows the redneck/cracker culture all the way from the British Isles. It’s a very interesting read on the evolution of various cultures in America, as well as how some are productive, and some are counter productive.

    You are absolutely right that the “no accounts” in white culture do not care about schooling, either. These are different than the merely poor, which take great pride in a child going off to college.

    The cracker culture originated in the British borderlands, where it made sense to be improvident and play hard. You were probably going to die tomorrow so why bother saving or planning? Education and reasoning were given little value, while pride, violent response to slights, fighting, hunting, and sex had priorities. Those values survived among immigrants far longer than they did in their mother countries, although they are now counterproductive and anachronistic.

    There may also be some convergent cultural evolution. If you feel like your life is going to be hard and short, you won’t plan, be responsible, save, or care about education, or anything else except looking cool. And if you are going to be very seriously injured by your peers if you do care about school, you’ll flunk out in self preservation.

  3. I have been given holy hell for my name for years. BLM Dog is rightfully mine. I have miles to go before I leak. There are dogs and then there are Black Labs. We are more important than other dogs and we are smart. We matter. All you humans who are caught up in this race thing need to get a dog for life support. Dogs are here on Earth to give mankind guidance.

  4. University of Houston Theme Song:

    We’re RedNecks! RedNecks!
    We don’t know our arse from a hole in the ground…
    We’re RedNecks! Keeping the free speech down.

    We got no neck oil men from Texas.
    Good old boys from Austin too.
    Down here we’re too ignorant to realize..
    The North has set the liberals free.

  5. @squeek

    nope – still disagree my friend. I have seen that within my own mother’s family in Appalachia and in middle TN as well. There is a certain subset of society whether white or black/brown that views other successful people who have escaped from the trenches as a threat. This ain’t no color thang

  6. @autumn

    I have seen some of that, but by and large, no. I have been in some white folk’s mobile homes with Penelope where chickens were running in and out the door (seriously), but there was a set of encyclopedias inside, and the kids were doing their homework, and A+ papers were on the fridge. Daddy may have been charged with meth, but the kids were still in school and getting good grades.

    Remember, those trashy whites that came from England, and Scotland, and Ireland, were shipped to Australia and made it into a civilized nation, and into ours and did the same. That is because they still had a degree of respect for education. Which I pretty much see lacking in the black rednecks. What holds them back is not so much their sociopathy, as their disrespect for education. IMHO.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  7. @squeek

    I totally disagree with your assessment that “white trash” celebrates educational achievements. Read Joe Bageant’s book “Deer Hunting with Jesus” Just like the poor blacks in the hood white Americans have been so beaten down they consider people rising up as threatening the status quo. It is not a colour thang rather a structural divide. I have seen this happen countless time in the poor white community: “you think you are better than we are”

    These poor souls rather than celebrating attack those who have actually escaped and achieved something.

    1. Edith Wilson is somewhat controversial. She claimed that Woodrow was approving everything she did. However, she seemed to be the only one who understood his stroke garbled speech. So, she ran the country in the name of Woodrow, but not in her own name.

  10. SQUEEKER;

    A few years ago a UTexas professor was derided as a racist after he said that in Hispanic (or Mexican) culture “failure is not considered disgraceful”. He was referring to academic failure and school children. I would add that there are many (millions?) of Americans who believe that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflicts.

  12. @KarenS

    Good recap. The truth is, blacks are the ultimate rednecks. I think there is a book out about that now. The one big difference I see between black rednecks and white rednecks is, that the white rednecks tend to respect education a lot more. If Little Johnny gets straight A’s, they tend to be proud of him. Whereas, if Little Dequarius gets straight A, he gets slammed for acting white.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

    1. Squeeky – if little whomever is ganged up he/she cannot get a higher grade than the lowest grade in his/her gang. I had A students tank the final so they would fail or get a D in the course. Sometimes, just to be mean, I gave them a grade based on their scores before the final. I knew it would cause problems with the gang.

  16. ROSCOE IS CORRECT. Any well-regarded academician who points out the evidentiary case that the Holahoax is just that will be demonized to the full extent of Zionist dogma. The same as those who dare to question the 9/11 fairy tale, the Nice hoax – White truck survives mowing down dozens of peope and emerges without even a single visible drop of blood on it. Then there’s the absurd PULSE niteclub fairy tale. To name only a few of the recent false flag operations. Say hello, SANDY HOOK: the storage facilty of four years since it operated as a school

  17. Isn’t this how Stalin rose to power?

    Did not Hitler rise to power baiting the willing?

  18. In the year 2018, Professor Turley’s article on this subject will go something like this, with the appropriate hyperlinks under “here” that will exist at that time:

    “We have previously discussed (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, there, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here) the erosion of free speech on college and university campuses as students and faculty are punished for expressing views deemed offensive to any group.”

    In other words, kiss you “free speech” and the First Amendment goodbye as we enter the Bizarro World of the “New Amerika.” You’d think by now that there would be a SCOTUS challenge to the “educational” (i.e., propaganda) institutions? But no. Groups like the ACLU, for example, are much too busy defending the rights of neo-Nazis and others of their ilk. Groups like the ACLU are part of the problem.

    1. My experience with the ACLU is that it defends a person’s rights based on principle, rather than on political views. I have applauded them when they have defended the rights of neo-Nazis or the KKK, even though both of those groups represent the opposite of my political views.

  19. The reeducation camps have free wi-fi so I don’t really see the problem!

    God, this is so creepy. And yes, she should have had the integrity to refuse these actions. She can discuss the issue with the students and lay out her thinking and they can lay out their thinking. Then they can come to an agreement on the issue, or not.

    Identity politics serves the ruling class. The authoritarian streak running through this society gets worse every day. Too few see how they are teaching themselves how to distance from others and how willing they have become to denounce their fellow citizens. This is the very technique most useful to an oligarchy who uses divide and conquer as a favorite strategy. The ability to make others crawl might feel very powerful but that is an ugly vision of power. It is the power of a mob or mobster. It is not the power which comes out of respect for one self or others.

    CREEEPY!

  20. Remember the Brown University documentary by David Thompson?
    the term “Weaponized Victimhood”?
    This is a strategic weapon folks and its intent is to do a disproportionate level of collateral damage as a warning to those that might challenge the pseudo victims standing, leaving the concept of free thinking and speech dead upon arrival. Nuke first and then accept no apology other than pure guilt and shame.

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