In The Name Of Diversity: Conservative Writer’s Speaking Engagement Cancelled By College Funded With Tax Payer Dollars
[guest post by Dana]
Whenever we see the heavy-handed authoritarianism of the collective Social Justice Warrior rearing its ugly head with a stranglehold on speech, it’s good to remember that these are the very people who believe that it is they who should make up the rules up for everyone else. We know that the left has never been about free speech, and certainly never embraced with an open-mindedness, opinions differing from their own. They are a narrow-minded, bigoted group who oppose liberty and individualism at every turn. And only those who see the world filtered through their own stiflingly limited prism are allowed to escape the heel of their boot.
Just days before he was scheduled to speak at Cal-State University of Los Angeles (CSULA), conservative writer Ben Shapiro, whose appearance was part of the CSULA Young Americans for Freedom’s (YAF) lecture series, was informed that his appearance had been cancelled. Fittingly, the title of Shapiro’s scheduled talk was “When Diversity Becomes a Problem”.
In his email to the YAF, CSULA President William Covino, who shamefully buckled under to a real fear of diversity by student protesters, determined that a Conservative speaker in a sea of liberals was simply not representative of diversity:
“After careful consideration, I have decided that it will be best for our campus community if we reschedule Ben Shapiro’s appearance for a later date, so that we can arrange for him to appear as part of a group of speakers with differing viewpoints on diversity. Such an event will better represent our university’s dedication to the free exchange of ideas and the value of considering multiple viewpoints.”
Yet as YAF points out, providing”differing viewpoints on diversity” hasn’t always been such a big concern for CSULA. Consider the roster of previous speakers at the college where no effort was made to offer differing points of view:
• Dr. Cornel West addressed “Post Racialism”
• Alia al-Saji spoke on “Cultural Racism: Muslim Veiling, Embodiment, and the Nature of Culture”
• Kimberlé Crenshaw addressed “Racing to Post Racialism: Critical Race Theory, Constitutional Law, and Sustaining Communities”
• Serene Khader lectured on the topic, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Freedom?”
• Angela Davis and Tim Wise will address in a video lecture “Exploring Whiteness” this Wednesday
Diversity, thy name is hypocrisy.
Kudos to Shapiro who isn’t knuckling under:
“The campus fascists have taken over,” Shapiro told Breitbart News. “I pay taxes in the state of California; I’m paying for these whiny children to be indoctrinated by radical leftists. For CSULA to pretend that they’re trying to provide balance isn’t just stupid, it’s insultingly stupid. I am the balance, and they’re too afraid to let me speak. These aren’t diversity warriors. They’re jackbooted thugs. If they want to call the men with guns to shut down free speech, they’ll demonstrate clearly just who they are. I’ll be there on Thursday. See you there, snowflakes.”
Shapiro notes that given this is viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment, if the police attempt to stop him from speaking tomorrow, he will sue under 18 USC 1983.
CSULA and other public institutions of higher learning indulge childish fears when they become little more than a tax-funded playpen for big babies demanding to be protected and pacified in their safe spaces so their beliefs and viewpoints cannot be challenged.
Oh. Did I mention that Shapiro is also an Orthodox Jew??
–Dana
