We have been discussing how faculty around the country are supporting the abandonment of free speech principles to bar speakers and speech with which they disagree. The most extreme form of this rejection of classical liberal values is the antifa movement.  We have seen faculty physically attack speakers or destroy messages that they oppose.  We have also seen faculty physically attacked and intimidated.  In some of these incidents, other faculty have supported students in shutting down speakers or fellow academics (here and here).  The latest example of faculty opposing free speech is a letter of over 200 University of California, Berkeley professors and faculty are calling for the shutdown of classes and activities during “free speech week.”  To the dismay of these professors, free speech week will include speakers with whom they disagree.  Thus, they have posted a letter that not only seeks a boycott of free speech but have proclaimed that certain speech (in this case speech they do not like) is unworthy of free speech protection.  Note the faculty and Ph.D students are calling for a boycott of classes and all campus activities, not just the speeches themselves.  Turning off the lights and fleeing the campus at the approach of opposing views hardly fits with the school’s motto of “Fiat Lux” (Let There Be Light).

Fortunately, the letter below does not include any law professors.

The letter captures the growing academic movement to curtail free speech on campus, supporting ever expanding notions of microaggressions and prohibited speech.  The letter contains the common references to conservative speakers as threatening the physical and mental well-being of faculty, students, and staff.

“We recognize that as a public institution, we are legally bound by the Constitution to allow all viewpoints on campus. However, there are forms of speech that are not protected under the First Amendment. These include speech that presents imminent physical danger and speech that disrupts the university’s mission to educate.”

What speech causes imminent physical danger?  The violence at Berkeley has been largely the result of counter-protesters fueled by faculty like this who legitimize anti-speech activities.  Putting that aside, these professors would adopt a rule allowing the denial of speech that they deem “disruptive.”  That passes for principle among these faculty members.

The boycott contains the same reference to speech harming students by expressing thoughts with which they disagree:

“As faculty we cannot ask students and staff to choose between risking their physical and mental safety in order to attend class or come to work in an environment of harassment, intimidation, violence, and militarized policing.”

The faculty members blame the university for allowing the free expression of opposing views:

If the administration insists upon allowing the Alt-Right to occupy the center of our campus for four days to harass, threaten and intimidate us, as they did during Milo’s visit in February, then faculty cannot teach, staff cannot work and students cannot learn

That line is particularly revealing.  As I previously discussed, the “anti-fascists” on our campuses seem strangely fascistic in their views in demanding the silencing of opposing views.  Here the mere fact that conservatives are speaking on campus is deemed a form of harassment, threats, and intimidation.  The telling inclusion of this language highlights the danger of microaggression and speech prohibitions which often use the same subjective and ill-defined terms.  Seminars and handouts on campus proscribe such microaggressions as saying  “There is only one race, the human race,” “America is the land of opportunity,” or asking “why are you so quiet?” Berkeley also defines hate speech as “any speech, gesture or conduct, writing, or display that may incite violence or prejudicial action against someone based on actual or perceived race, color, ancestry, gender, gender identity, ethnicity …”  As for expression of bias to be reported, this can include any “general communication not directed toward a particular individual, which disparages a group of people on the basis of some characteristic ….”

This letter however reveals how anti-free speech views have become mainstream with faculty who want universities to bar speech (particularly conservative speech) as threatening to the university as a whole.  What is embarrassing is the low-grade logic of these letters.  There is little effort to go beyond the premise of how some-speech-makes-us-ill rationale.  The scope of permitted scope simply becomes a majoritarian decision.  At the same time, these professor are telling students that they legitimately fail mentally and physically threatened by being exposed to opposing views.  If our students are becoming “snowflakes,” the below are the snow makers.

Here is the letter: Berkeley Letter

BOYCOTT THE ALT-RIGHT @UCBerkeley

September 24-27th

A letter from UCB Faculty to the Campus and Berkeley Community

To sign the letter, click here.

 

While there has still not been an official announcement from campus administrators, we are learning that from September 24th to 27th,  the University of California at Berkeley will provide a platform to Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter, Stephen K. Bannon, Breitbart media and their far right audience. A series of explicitly violent Alt-Right, militia and pro-Fascist events are also, again, being scheduled for Civic Center / MLK park in downtown Berkeley on those days.

 

Once more, signs point towards an escalated and uncontrollable confrontation both on and off campus during these four days. The history of these events has been chilling. Since Inauguration Day, Alt-Right followers have shot someone at the University of Washington, stabbed two people to death on public transport in Portland, stabbed to death a college senior in Maryland, beaten numerous nonviolent protesters at the University of Virginia, and most recently murdered a peaceful protester with an automobile in Charlottesville. Most immediately troubling, given Trump’s decision to end DACA, is that these forces have publicly expressed their intent to specifically target “sanctuary campuses” and disclose the identity of undocumented students. As concerned faculty members, we cannot remain silent while students, staff, colleagues, and fellow community members are threatened.

 

Therefore, as faculty committed to the safety of our students and our campus, we are calling for a complete boycott of all classes and campus activities while these Alt-Right events are taking place at the very center of UC Berkeley’s campus. As faculty we cannot ask students and staff to choose between risking their physical and mental safety in order to attend class or come to work in an environment of harassment, intimidation, violence, and militarized policing. The reality is that particularly vulnerable populations (DACA students, non-white, gender queer, Muslims, disabled, feminists, and others) have already been harmed, and are reporting increased levels of fear and anxiety about the upcoming events, the increased police presence on our campus, and how all this will impact their lives and their studies.

 

It is not just physical violence that our campus faces from this media circus. Many of these provocateurs’ most committed audiences are online, and the Breitbart media machine uses that audience to harass, cyberbully, and threaten anyone who speaks out against them. Students and faculty on our campus have already had their lives threatened for speaking out against Milo and his followers. Online threats are real threats, and if we allow this intolerant and bullying version of free speech to take over our campus, then it can only but come at the expense of the free speech rights of the Berkeley community as a whole. In fact, campus safety concerns have already forced the Anthropology Department to cancel a public talk during “free speech week.” This makes clear that the administration understands the imminent threat to campus safety while also revealing that the loud demands of the Alt-Right has the effect of silencing members of our campus community.

 

We recognize that as a public institution, we are legally bound by the Constitution to allow all viewpoints on campus. However, there are forms of speech that are not protected under the First Amendment. These include speech that presents imminent physical danger and speech that disrupts the university’s mission to educate. Milo, Coulter and Bannon do not come to educate; they and their followers come to humiliate and incite. If the administration insists upon allowing the Alt-Right to occupy the center of our campus for four days to harass, threaten and intimidate us, as they did during Milo’s visit in February, then faculty cannot teach, staff cannot work and students cannot learn.

 

We refuse to grant the Alt-Right the media spectacle that they so desperately desire. This strategy responds to the concerns voiced in the letter authored by the chairs of the three departments most impacted–Gender & Women’s Studies, African American Studies and Ethnic Studies – and also follows the lead of the SPLC advice to ignore these agitators. As faculty, we reject both the administration’s rhetoric of false equivalency that all speech – including “hate speech” – merits value and respect and also the impulse to see direct confrontation as the only strategy of resistance. A boycott of all campus activities during these days is the only responsible course of action.

 

Therefore we are calling upon faculty to take the following steps:

1. Cancel classes and tell students to stay home. A boycott of classes affirms that our fundamental responsibility as faculty is to protect the safety and well being of all our students. While we understand the argument that canceling classes might be seen as a penalty to students who want to learn–by holding class when some students CAN NOT attend by virtue of their DACA status and the imminent threat that these campus events hold, faculty who DO hold classes are disadvantaging DACA students and others who will feel threatened by being on campus.

 

1. Close buildings, close departments and let staff stay home. If the campus is unsafe for student learning then it is unsafe for staff members to work. We should work with campus maintenance and building managers to close as many departments and buildings as possible, starting with those in the immediate vicinity of Sproul Plaza. No one should be forced to work surrounded by men with clubs, police with guns and the sting of teargas.

 

1. Faculty who decide to hold class during this week, in the face of these explicit threats, should not penalize students who are afraid to come to campus. It is unfair and discriminatory for faculty to schedule exams or require attendance during this week. Such an expectation forces students to choose between their physical safety, their mental well being, and a grade. Consider making a video lecture available, give the students a take-home assignment, or creating another alternative class plan.  If you decide you must hold class, please do it away from campus, away from the Telegraph Avenue point of campus entry, and away from Downtown.

 

The Administration, in failing to halt these events, has left concerned faculty with no other choice than to act to prevent further harm to our community. We urge you to join us in keeping our students and our campus safe by signing on to this call for a campus-wide- boycott.

In Solidarity,

To add your name to this letter,  follow this link and sign at the bottom.

 

Signed:

 

Michael Mark Cohen

Associate Teaching Professor, American Studies and African American Studies

 

Leigh Raiford,

Associate Professor, African American Studies

 

Juana María Rodríguez

Professor, Ethnic Studies

 

Charis Thompson

Chancellor’s Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies and Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society

 

Leslie Salzinger

Associate Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies

 

Jeffrey Skoller

Associate Professor, Film and Media

 

Natalia Brizuela

Associate Professor, Spanish & Portuguese and Film and Media

 

Julia Bryan-Wilson

Professor, History of Art

 

Allan Desouza

Associate Professor & Chair, Art Practice

 

Ramona Naddaff

Associate Professor, Rhetoric

 

Peter Glazer

Associate Professor, Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies

 

Mary Ann Doane

Class of 1937 Professor of Film & Media

 

Anne Walsh

Associate Professor, Art Practice

 

Jake Kosek

Associate Professor, Geography

 

Stephanie Syjuco

Assistant Professor, Art Practice

 

Mel Y. Chen

Associate Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies

 

Cori Hayden

Associate Professor, Anthropology

 

Gregory Levine

Professor, Art and Architecture of Japan and Buddhist Visual Cultures

 

James Vernon

Professor, Department of History

 

Samera Esmeir

Associate Professor, Rhetoric

 

Victoria E. Robinson

Lecturer, Ethnic Studies

 

john a. Powell

Director, Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society

 

Paola Bacchetta

Professor, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies

 

Minoo Moallem

Professor, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies

 

Déborah Blocker
Associate Professor, Department of French

 

Carlos Muñoz, Jr.

Edward A. Dickson Distinguished Emeriti Professor, Ethnic Studies

 

Patricia Penn Hilden

Professor Emerita, Ethnic Studies

 

Chris Zepeda-Millan

Assistant Professor, Department of Ethnic Studies

 

Mark Goble

Associate Professor, English

 

Keith P. Feldman

Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies

 

Nadia Ellis

Associate Professor, English

 

Nikki Jones

Associate Professor, African American Studies

 

Susan Schweik,

Professor, English

 

Geoffrey G. O’Brien

Associate Professor, English

Richard B. Norgaard

Professor Emeritus, Energy and Resources Group

 

Rachel Morello-Frosch

Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management & School of Public Health

 

Emily O’Rourke

Rhetoric, GSI

 

Beezer de Martelly

PhD Candidate, Music/Ethnomusicology

 

Laleh Behbehanian

Lecturer, Dept. Of Sociology

 

Suzanne Guerlac

Professor, French Department

 

Ivonne del Valle

Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese

 

Simon Rogghe

GSI, French Department

 

Joni Spigler

ABD, History of Art Dept

 

Soraya Tlatli

Associate Professor, French

 

Eric Peterson

PhD Student, Dept. of Architecture

 

Akua Ofori

Postdoctoral Scholar

 

Ayse Agis

Continuing Lecturer, Gender and Women’s Studies

 

Maria Faini

CRG Specialist/PhD Candidate: Ethnic Studies/Critical Theory

 

Scott Hewicker

Lecturer, First Year Program

 

Caroline Lemak Brickman

PhD candidate, Slavic Dept.

 

Sima Belmar

Lecturer, TDPS

 

Bryan Wagner

Associate Professor, English

 

Ian Duncan,

Professor of English

 

Joshua Anderson

GSI, English

 

Todd P. Olson

Professor, History of Art

 

Donna Honarpisheh

Comparative Literature

 

Anne-Lise Francois

Associate Professor, Comparative Literature & English

 

Manuel Rosaldo

PhD Candidate, Sociology

 

Jovan Lewis

Assistant Professor, Geography and African-American Studies

 

Alex Bush

PhD Candidate, Film & Media

 

Seth Holmes

Public Health and Medical Anthropology

 

Maya Kronfeld

PhD Candidate Comparative Literature

 

Johnathan Vaknin

PhD Candidate, Comparative Literature

 

Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda

East Asian Languages and Cultures

 

Kathryn Levine

Ph.D. Candidate, French

 

Hallie Wells

PhD Candidate, Anthropology

 

Daniel Benjamin

GSI, English

 

Ernest Artiz

GSI, Department of English

 

Christian Nagler

PhD Candidate, Theater, Dance & Performance Studies

 

Zachary Levenson

Ph.D. Candidate, Sociology

 

Abigail De Kosnik

Associate Professor, Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies

 

Lida Zeitlin Wu

PhD candidate, Film & Media

 

Elias Lawliet

PhD student, Jurisprudence and Social Policy

 

John Mundell

PhD student, African American & African Diaspora Studies

 

Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby

Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguised Professor of Arts and Humanities, History of Art

 

Peter Teichner

Professor of Mathematics

 

Pedro Rolon

GSI/ Ph.D. student, Comparative Literature

 

Alex Brostoff

GSI and PhD student, Comparative Literature

 

Alex Brostoff

GSI and PhD student, Comparative Literature

 

Melina Packer

PhD Candidate, Environmental Science, Policy & Management

 

Maria Tonione

PhD candidate

 

Diana Ruiz

PhD student/GSI, Film & Media

 

Xiao Yun Chang

MS Transportation Engineering / Master of City Planning. CEE / DCRP

 

Alex Thomas

ESPM

 

Christy Getz

Cooperative Extension Specialist, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management

 

Stefannia Mambelli

Integrative Biology

 

Margaret Jones

Ph.D. Candidate/Music

 

Kavleen Singh

Political Science

 

Lauren Kroiz

Associate Professor, History of Art

 

Juliet Rose Kunkel

PhD student, School of Education

 

Kristen Sun

GSI, Ethnic Studies

 

Paul De Morais

PhD candidate, Comparative Literature

 

Andrew Pastor

Lab Manager, School of Public Health

 

Tess Peppers

EWMBA Student, Haas School of Business

 

Patrick Baur

Postdoctoral Fellow, ESPM

 

Xavier Perrone

Programs Manager – Center for Latino Policy Research

 

Andrew Sharo

PhD Candidate, Biophysics

 

Patrick Harrison

PhD Student, Film & Media

 

Omar Gutiérrez del Arroyo

PhD Candidate, Environmental Science, Policy & Management

 

Julie Pyatt

PhD in Environmental Sci, Pol. & Mngmt.

 

Christina Azahar

Ph.D. Candidate/GSI, Music

 

Jacob Wolbert

Graduate Student, Music––––

 

Giancarlo Cornejo

PhD Candidate/Rhetoric

 

Sarah Cowan

PhD Candidate, History of Art

 

Lou Silhol-Macher

PhD Student, German

 

Harry Burson

PhD student/GSI, Film & Media

 

Rebecca Feinberg

PhD candidate, Anthropology

 

Jacob Raterman

Graduate Student/GSI, French Department

 

Katrin Wehrheim

Associate Professor, Mathematics

 

Adam Bazari

UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program

 

Mary Mussman

GSI and PhD Student, Comparative Literature

 

Kumars Salehi

PhD candidate/German

 

Lisa Jacobson

PhD Candidate and GSI, Film & Media

 

Whitney Mgbara

Phd candidate – Environmental Science, Policy, and Management

 

Debarati Sanyal

Professor, Department of French

 

Michael Song

PhD Student, Integrative Biology

 

Janet Torres

PhD student, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

 

Kelly Daniela Norris

PhD student/GSI, Film & Media

 

Jocelyn Saidenberg

PhD candidate, Comparative Literature

 

Ariel Wind

GSI and PhD Candidate, Spanish and Portuguese

 

Alina Predescu

PhD Candidate, Film & Media

 

Omi Salas-SantaCruz

PhD Student/GSI/ School of Education

 

Adam Jadhav

PhD student, instructor, Geography

 

Caitlin Scholl

GSI, Comparative Literature