I recently wrote how Antifa and other college protesters are increasingly denouncing free speech and the foundations for liberal democracies. That troubling trend was evident last week with a protest at William & Mary College in Virginia when protesters from Black Lives Matter stopped a discussion with Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia. Protesters screamed “Liberalism is white supremacy!” the protesters shouted, and “ACLU, you protect Hitler too!” It was an all-too-common sight and universities have done little to address students who believe that they have a right to prevent others from hearing opposing views.
The protesters livestreamed the demonstration on Facebook as they chanted “The oppressed are not impressed!,” “Blood on your hands!,” and “The revolution will not uphold the Constitution!”
Gastañaga was left sidelined as protesters refused to let her speak. She was there to discuss free speech and can be heard initially saying that this is the issue that brought her to campus and “Good, I like this.” She added “I’m going to talk to you about knowing your rights, and protests and demonstrations, which this illustrates very well. Then I’m going to respond to questions from the moderators, and then questions from the audience.”
The BLM protesters denounced free speech as a tool of oppression. One organizer declared:
“When is the free speech of the oppressed protected? We know from personal experience that rights granted to wealthy, white, cis, male, straight bodies do not trickle down to marginalized groups. We face greater barriers and consequences for speaking.”
What also concerns me is that fact that these students claimed the right to prevent other students from participating in classes or events — a similar complaint raised against the recent protests against James Comey at Howard University. The students interrupted a lecture and were reportedly screaming at other students who actually wanted to learn. I have taken a harsh line on such disruptions of classrooms like a recent incident at Northwestern University. This violates a core defining values of our academic institutions and such students should be suspended for such conduct. There is a difference between voicing your views and preventing others from speaking, particularly inside of a classroom. When you claim the right to prevent others from hearing opposing views or speakers, you are at odds with the academic mission of these universities.
William & Mary should suspend students who prevent classes or public events. Period. Either students come to a school to be exposed to different views and to express their views, or they have no place in an institution of higher learning.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that the protesters are easily identifiable on tape, William & Mary College President Taylor Reveley issued a statement that said nothing of disciplining, let alone suspending, the students:
“This stifles debate and prevents those who’ve come to hear a speaker, our students in particular, from asking questions, often hard questions, and from engaging in debate where the strength of ideas, not the power of shouting, is the currency. William & Mary must be a campus that welcomes difficult conversations, honest debate and civil dialogue.”
That is the right sentiment but the question is whether Reveley is prepared to protect those values with concrete action.
That is the right sentiment but the question is whether Reveley is prepared to protect those values with concrete action.
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Surprisingly indifferent given his previous stance:https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/31935/
But maybe he’s been “beta male-ized” by the liberal Board of Visitors.
Black Liberals Matter?
“When you claim the right to prevent others from hearing opposing views or speakers, you are at odds with the academic mission of these universities.”
I would argue that this view is at odds with their own beliefs. Doesn’t someone that disagrees with the BLM views then have a “right” to shout down BLM?
Maybe conservative students should fight back by shutting down left-wing speakers. They’ll have plenty of opportunities, and if they get punished more severely than leftists for the same behavior, they should be able to sue.
This is so sad. I agree with the protesters when they state it is more difficult for certain groups of people to speak out than others. This nation absolutely does have an ugly history of repression towards our people based on race, sex, gender, etc. and something the protesters rarely mention, class. I must agree that liberalism as it is now expressed in US society indeed supports racism as do many of the protesters themselves.
These protesters align themselves with members of the ruling class in the US and around the world to deprive black and brown poor people of the right to life. These “others” live in nations which the US and its allies are bombing to oblivion. It’s weird to see the new “resistance” composed of the oligarchy in banking, weapons sales and the IC, among other truly destructive industries. These are the leaders of the new resistance. It’s so bizarre I have no words for it.
There is little understanding left in our nation of working for the common good. I don’t think it’s an accident. I think the govt. has fostered hatred and division and it’s mission accomplished. The ACLU has just splintered itself on defense of free speech regarding armed groups. One camp is against it, another group wrote: ‘In an interview, Norman Siegel, the former head of the A.C.L.U.’s New York affiliate and a signer of the letter, noted that refusing to take armed groups as free speech clients would have meant turning down, say, the Black Panthers.”
Here was an opportunity to actually talk with a person and other people who have differing viewpoints. The refusal to talk to others is destructive of a functioning society. If we cannot see the importance of standing up for the rights of people with whom we disagree or even hate, we are dishonoring ourselves and destroying the best of who we all are. This is exactly what an oligarchy wants from the people-stupidity, lack of an ethical way of thinking or acting and a mob. I really wish people would stop giving them what they want. We can do much better.
Can we all be honest? BAD PARENTING! This undisciplined batch of kids will be out a of college, maybe. My daughter and her Husband are in the following generation. They have raised two daughters as we were raised. So in four or five years college graduates will actually have learned something.
“William & Mary should suspend students who prevent classes or public events. Period.”
NO! Colleges should suspend students who DISRUPT classes or public events. There should be zero tolerance for the slightest degree of disruption. Surely this is what Turley believes? I wish he had said it.
All this horsesh!t on campus is creating many more Trump voters for 2020. That said, liberalism is white supremacy in many regards. Malcolm X warned black people of white liberals over 50 years ago.
If a school has made an offer of a liberal arts education and you accept the offer then paid them and then they don’t deliver and in some cases ban you from campus for a day based on your race don’t you have a breach of contract lawsuit.
I am not a lawyer but I have to believe real students have some recourse.
Shameless, narcissistic children looking for their 15 minutes of blame.
“15 minutes of blame.” Clever.
Agree with Turley here. But I am still waiting to hear how far he would go in his speech libertarianism – freely allow pedophilia on the internet???
And if you disallow depraved pedophilia speech, shouldn’t you also disallow depraved Presidential and Congressional speech which terrorizes women, children, the elderly, and everyone else in resource-rich countries?
shouldn’t you also disallow depraved Presidential and Congressional speech which terrorizes women, children, the elderly, and everyone else in resource-rich countries?
No need to. Such policies exist only in your imagination.
Unfortunately, no.
No, David, such policies do not exist.
ALM. No not All Lives Matter. Alabama, Louisiana and Mississpi. They are going to get hit with a hurricane.
Being ignorant in America is a given. Once your mom gets the welfare check then you are a “given”. You never come back. Girls age 14 go get knocked up so they “can get my check”. So, get knocked up, have the baby, get your check and start bitching.
I’m not arguing with your point (nor am I directly insinuating anything about affluence), but the fact is, most of these ‘activists’ come from wealthy or at least upper-class families. This isn’t the minimum wage crowd, none of these schools are cheap, and last time I checked, no one is taking community colleges by storm. It seems to be nearly exclusively their ‘problem’, too, this is *their* institutionalization and flat-out bubble induced ignorance. The young people (and faculty to an extent) are too thick or naive to understand their daily thoughts about their reality and circumstances are not remotely universal. I doubt very much their nannies care to teach them, either. It’s just a case of more badly-parented brats. I sure wish we could hold the parents accountable, even just philosophically, at some point. That is a conversation that needs to happen.
What, if anything, is the legal remedy by means of which the administration of William and Mary College or any other university can be compelled to defend the free speech rights of the ACLU or any other speakers on campus?
Shall the federal government deputize the Deans? What laws shall the Deputy Deans enforce? The Good Samaritan laws? No. Seriously. Are good Samaritans legally obligated to defend the free-speech rights of each and every last one of their fellow citizens? O frabjous day. Calloo. Callay.
Shall federal funding be curtailed at schools that refuse to defend free-speech rights? Why not curtail federal funding for local law enforcement agencies that refuse to defend free-speech rights?
Is there anyone at all who could not be legally compelled to enforce the laws that university administrations and law enforcement agencies refuse to enforce? Shall the entire country be run in the manner of a Parchman Farm in which each and every last citizen is either or both a convicted criminal and a sheriffs deputy alternately defending or violating one another’s free-speech rights?
How do you spell disstopia, anyhow?
Diane – you spell it with a y.
Thanks, Paul. But my misspelling is funnier.
Diane – I was just trying to be helpful. Didn’t realize it was a joke. 😉
No problem, Paul. Ordinarily I don’t get my own humor, either.
Late4D,..
I don’t think there would be any need for the administration to take action in this case, since the speaker “liked” being shouted down.
I don’t think that an administration can ” be compelled to” defend the right of a guest speaker to talk.
If the administration is interested in defending that right, there are usually administrative actions that can be taken against students who disrupt events.
Students or non-students could probably be cited for disorderly conduct, and possibly trespassing.
But I don’t think the administration can be forced to take any of these actions.
Thanks Tom Nash. The questions were intended to be rhetorical–as usual. There’s lots of complaining on this topic, but no proposed remedy under the law. Kind of like nullification. The law can’t force law-abiding citizens to do the law’s bidding when the law itself refuses to do its own bidding.
Late4D,..
You might be interested in the administrative measures taken by Evergreen College.
80 students were sanctioned for there roles in the disruption on campus this spring.
The sanctions included warnings, community service, probation, and suspension.
Evergreen also settled the lawsuit brought by the professor (Weinstein?) who was chased off of the campus.
The professor settled for $500,000.
“their roles”
Thanks again, Tom Nash. It figures that somebody, somewhere would be doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Turley has yet to give us a positive example of what he expects college administrators to do.
William and Mary’s a state institution. They have obligations under the Virginia and U.S. Constitutions.
I get that, SOT. But, short of withdrawing state or federal funds, what other legal remedies might compel college administrators to meet their obligations under the Virginia and US Constitutions?
It looks like nullification to me.
1. An injunction.
2. Reconstituting the Board of Trustees.
a. Limit the number of trustees to a manageable figure, say, 5-15 with about 9 the norm for a state college. Elect them quadrennially, the year before a federal presidential election
b. Have the trustees elected in a postal ballot of alumni registered to vote in the Commonwealth of Virginia. You’d just add a question to voter registration forms, compare them to alumni records, and send out postcard inquiries to resolve discrepancies. You’d have your roll.
c. Aspirants to slots on the Board of Trustees would register their candidacy by placing monetary deposit with the secretary of state or state board of elections, leaving also a 600 word statement. The authorities would assemble a prospectus of statements of candidacy and print up ballots.
d. Instead of a single stereotype, you’d have as many stereotypes as candidates who qualify for the ballot. You’d compose a stereotype by making a random drawing of the candidates and placing the slips on a daisy-wheel. You start at a spot and move counter-clockwise around the wheel, and you have a stereotype. You start at another spot, and you have another stereotype. You print up equal numbers of each stereotype and mail them out with the prospectus. You always have a certain number of numbskulls who just mark the first four names on the ballot. With this method, these people cancel eachother out because each registered candidate has an equal chance to occupy the 1st, 2d, 3d…10th position on the ballot.
e. You mail out your ballots with the prospectus. People fill out the ballot and mail them back in. The ballots are counted in Richmond. It would be an ordinal ballot, so people would rank their choices and the ballots would be tallied according to the conventions of the alternate vote. You start with tallying the 1st preference votes, then eliminate all candidates who scored fewer than 2% of the first preference votes, distributing their ballots to their respective 2d choices (or excluding them from the tally if there be no 2d choice). You next eliminate the trailing candidate, distributing his ballots to their respective 2d (or 3d) choices. Rinse, repeat until the # of candidates left equals the number of seats on the board.
f. If vacancies appear on the board due to resignations and what not, fill them by repairing to the results of the tabulation undertaken to elect the board. The ultimate candidate eliminated in the tallying above would fill the 1st vacancy, the penultimate candidate the 2d vacancy and so forth.
g. Subject trustees to mandatory rotation-in-office (i.e. they may serve no more than 10 years in any bloc of 12) and to an oath of office which emphasizes their responsibility for the academic integrity of the school.
3. Grant the following powers and duties to trustees under state statute: to review and approve the financial statements of the institution, to review and approve all issues of bonds and commercial paper, to review and approve the institution’s budget, to review and approve all grants of tenure, to review and approve all degree programs (within the scaffolding of a controlled vocabulary established by the state legislature and within the scaffolding of the institution’s specific mission as defined by the legislature), to appoint the president, to review (and veto or supplant) appointments to positions reporting to the presidents, to review (and veto or supplant) appointments reporting to these vice presidents, and to dictate general policies on tenure and promotion, on financial aid allocations, and on admissions.
The foregoing might not do much of anything. It would provide an avenue for normies living and working in the society at large to penetrate the faculty / administration bubble.
SOT, I suspect that you’re trying to make me sorry I asked. If so, then I’m sorely tempted to be sorry I asked. If not, then Option 1–an injunction (against BLM?)–would yield the most interesting consequences for the blawg. But what petitioners would seek said injunction? The students? That just might work.
L4D – “disstopia” – love it! Until the alum start raising hell and stop donating I don’t think things will change as obviously the admininstrations at these universities are weak and ineffective. How about student rights? Don’t they matter?
When BLM refused to let Milo speak at DePaul last summer the alum got involved and the provost was fired.
Autumn, student rights matter. If the students want to exercise their right to listen freely to speakers speaking freely, and if the college administrators refuse to defend free speech against disruptive hecklers, then the students could petition a court for an injunction against the disruptive hecklers. If the disruptive hecklers violate the court order, then they could be arrested–assuming that a duly authorized law enforcement agency of some sort would be duty bound to enforce the court’s injunction. What happens after that is unbeknownst to me. But I bet the other shoe would definitely be something . . . noisy.
It certainly wasn’t long before the rage came full circle. Now, the monster liberals created in promoting groups such as this and Antifa are pounding at the door wanting their heads.
In the old Dungeons & Dragon’s lore there was a spear known as a Cursed Backbiter, a spear which when thrown occasionally curves around and strikes the thrower in the back; all the while the thrower cannot break himself from the spell or condemnation to keep using it while insisting it still works perfectly.
My thoughts exactly, Darren. Wonder where the libruls can go from here? All their white guilt got them was a raw backside and spit in the face.
Without the liberals BLM would be done but hey if you are white some activists think you should remember your place and shut up. I’m not happy saying that but the message is starting to come across Löhne and clear and it’s just as chilling as a Nazi March.
I have to admit I find this rather amusing. “Liberalism is white supremacy,” hahaha. Well, of course it is. But without liberalism, these BLM fools wouldn’t be attending William & Mary, and the college would not have created special majors for them (African American Studies and other rot) because they can’t compete in regular courses. So what would they prefer, that conservatives take over the college and bounce them to Baltimore Community College where they can take the remedial math and English that they need? They say even a dog is smart enough to not bite the very hand that feeds it….
and the college would not have created special majors for them (African American Studies and other rot) because they can’t compete in regular courses.
The special majors are patronage for faculty. The students have the sense to stay away from them. You have 1.86 million baccalaureate degrees issued each year in this country. In 2014, a grand total of 1,357 degrees in ‘women’s studies’ were issued, 639 in black studies, and 456 in variants of hispanic studies. It’s an entirely supply-side driven phenomenon. State universities, like public television, amounts to an ongoing subsidy to the progtrash left.
SOT – I want a double major in Irish and German-American Studies. I am feeling triggered.
Turley, typo in the headline.
I never thought the ACLU put much effort into defending causes it didn’t support which are anything to the right of center. I specifically remember a case in Cecil County, Maryland where after spending months projecting itself as the “see, as repugnant as it may be, we will still defend the KKK and their right to march” The defense lasted a very, very few minutes and had the Judge asking “is that all you have”. Off course every major network sent someone who camped outside the Courthouse. Rising Sun, Maryland has always held the unofficial title of Farthest North Outpost of the KKK. The area is home to a large population of transplants from Johnson County, Tennessee, who came to the area during the Depression and WW2 seeking work.
The area is home to a large population of transplants from Johnson County, Tennessee, who came to the area during the Depression and WW2 seeking work.
About 87% of the population of this country alive in 1945 has since died. It’s been 70-odd years. Indubitably a large number of the remainder have moved elsewhere. There were fewer than 700 people in Rising Sun, Maryland in 1950. I’ll wager you’d scrounge to find a dozen who’ve lived there since 1945.
And none of them had children? Children often share the attitudes of their parents…..
First of all, do they go to school there? Second, where the devil is security? Third, the ACLU just got a taste of their own medicine. You reap what you sow.
Paul C. Schulte,..
The ACLU speaker said “Good, I like this” when she was shouted down.
So she liked the taste of the “medicine”.
Tom Nash – It is what we call a “teachable moment’ when what we have been talking about happens in front of us. She was trying to take advantage of the situation and I will give her credit for not engaging with the idiots. However, the fact they are going to have to charge outrageous security fees to speakers at liberal events their rather tickles me. 😉
As for the BLM chant, this is the first time I have actually agreed with them. They are spot on. 🙂
I was thinking the same thing. Most universities not only have security, they have their own police departments with jurisdiction on campus as well as up to one mile off campus.
More “tactics of distraction” from BLM. They think if they shout loud enough about irrelevancies, we’ll all forget about their fundamental problems, the vast majority of which they’ve brought upon themselves with anti-social and unlawful behavior.
Don’t fall for the tactics.
Why is it never red supremacy, yellow supremacy, brown supremacy or black supremacy?
It is Han Chinese supremacy in the People’s Republic of China.
Yes, all too many “students” are protective of their ignorance.