[966] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Suppression of speech on campus
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Prez H. Cannady)
Tue Nov 6 19:25:33 2001
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Message-ID: <200111062318.SAA11988@melbourne-city-street.mit.edu>
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2001 18:18:23 -0500
From: "Prez H. Cannady" <revprez@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/baroneweb/mb_011106.htm
Suppression of speech on campus=20
The speech most under attack is pro-American speech=20
By Michael Barone=20
When the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon were attacked September
11,
the overwhelming majority of Americans immediately felt, "We have been
attacked." A very small number of Americans immediately felt, "They had it
coming." Of the 500-plus members of Congress, all but one or two felt, "We
have
been attacked." Similar majorities of Americans in every occupation,=
economic
class, ethnic group, political party, and institutional affiliation felt the
same way.=20
With one exception: the faculties of our colleges and universities. There=
the
cries of "They had it coming," were fierce and frequent. "Anyone who can=
blow
up the Pentagon has my vote," said University of New Mexico history=
professor
Richard Berthold. George Wright, a political scientist at California State
University at Chico, accused the Bush administration of wanting to=
militarize
the Middle East, colonize the Arab world, and gain access to oil for the=
Bush
family. Jennie Traschen, a physics professor at the University of
Massachusetts
in Amherst, called the American flag "a symbol of terrorism and death and=
fear
and destruction and oppression"the day before September 11, but she held to
the
same view afterward.=20
Naturally, some Americans are calling for dismissal of such professors.=
Others
are arguing that there should be no penalties for the exercise of free=
speech.
Among the latter is the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education:=
"Across
the nation, in response to the atrocities of Sept. 11, 2001, and to the
debates
and discussions that have occurred in their wake, many college and=
university
administrations are acting to inhibit the free expression of citizens of a
free
society. Some administrations continue selective repression as if nothing=
had
occurred: In the name of preventing 'offense,' they seek to stifle the views
with which they disagree. Other administrations, more careerist in time of
crisis than at other moments, want to avoid scandalizing broader opinion. In
both cases, they are willing to continue to sacrifice American liberty."=
What
is interesting about the attempts to suppress speech, which have been
chronicled by FIRE, is that almost all of them have been directed not=
against
those who celebrated the attacks of September 11 but against those who take
the
same view as the overwhelming majority of Americans. The speech most under
attack is pro-American speech.=20
Can this really be true? Here are some examples.=20
A. Zewdalem Kebede, an Ethiopian-born U.S. citizen and student at San Diego
State University, received two letters from the university's misnamed Center
for Student Rights, one stating that he had been "verbally abusive to other
students," the other warning him that "confronting members of the campus
community in a manner that is found to be aggressive or abusive" will
result in
severe disciplinary action. His offense: On September 22, after overhearing=
a
group of Saudi students saying in Arabic how pleased they were with the
September 11 attacks, Kebede, who is fluent in Arabic, said, "Guys, what you
are talking is unfair. How do you feel happy when those 5,000 to 6,000=
people
are buried in two or three buildings? They are under rubble or they became
ash.
And you are talking about the action of bin Laden and his group. You are=
proud
of them. You should have to feel shame."=20
Orange Coast Community College instructor Ken Hearlson, in a class the week
after September 11, called Muslims who condone terrorism "terrorists,"
"murderers" and "Nazis." Muslim students complained, and one student=
E-mailed
administrators that a Muslim classmate had said, "Don't hold your breath=
[that
Hearlson's coming back]. He might not live." College president Margaret
Gratton
relieved Hearlson of his teaching duties but not his pay.=20
At Central Michigan University, Emmons Hall resident Don Pasco was told to
remove from his dorm room door "an American eagle, a picture of the World
Trade
Center exploding, and a column." Residence hall director Al Nowak explained,
"We look to create an environment conducive to academic study. If people
choose
to put something in their room, it's OK But the common areas have a posting
policy. If offensive, defined as anything that degrades other individuals,
verbally inappropriate messages, explicit pictures, nudity, or any type of
profanity, it is not allowed. We look to make sure people feel comfortable.
CMU
has people with different ethnic and diverse backgrounds, and we want them=
all
to feel comfortable going down the hall."=20
Charles Fairbanks, then director of Johns Hopkins University's School of
Advanced International Studies Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, in a panel
presentation September 14, argued that the United States should direct its
response to September 11 not only at Osama bin Laden but also against
governments that supported the attack. He said the U.S. wouldn't be able to
find bin Laden, and "I'll bet anyone here a Koran on that." He went on to
identify Iraq, Pakistan, and the Palestinian Authority as likely sponsors of
the September 11 attacks, and said, "Unfortunately, Palestinians hate us and
that's a painful fact." At which point a woman in the audience stood up and
accused him of "innunendoes intended to encourage and to assist people in
conducting hate crimes ... toward Muslims." On September 18, Fairbanks was
fired as head of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute. He was later=
reinstated,
but a message was sent.=20
The University of California-Berkeley student Senate in early October called
for punishment of The Daily Californian, the campus paper, for running a
cartoon
on September 18 showing two Muslim terrorists roasting in hell. The=
suggested
penalty: The University should raise the paper's $8,000 per month rent=
unless
the newspaper staff underwent "voluntary diversity training." The student
government also called upon the paper to issue "a printed apology, and a new
record of dedication to truth in editorial and news content...to rectify its
complete insensitivity to the needs of its campus and its values."=20
What is behind this lunacy? The speech codes that some two thirds of the
nation's colleges and universities have imposed on their faculty and=
students.
And they are justified with language that could have come out of George
Orwell's 1984. The Berkeley student Senate prefaced its call for "voluntary
diversity training" with a statement saying, "Berkeley remains one of the=
few
places in the world where a thoughtful, critical exchange can occur from
people
across a spectrum of backgrounds and races, without fear of reprisal or
hatred." That is, factually, utterly wrong. Berkeley is a city whose
government
banned pictures of flags on its fire trucks on the theory that they would
provoke hate crimes. Berkeley is a university where 1,000 copies of the=
Daily
Californian were stolen from newspaper racks on Sproul Plaza October 24 by a
group offended by an advertisement titled "End States Who Sponsor
Terrorism"=96supposedly an offense to the Iranian community. The university,=
as
usual, took no action against those who stole the newspapers.=20
Berkeley and hundreds of other colleges and universities today are some of=
the
few places in America where free exchanges of ideas cannot take place=
because
some ideas=96most of them ideas shared by the great majority of the American
people--are systematically suppressed. Colleges and universities are the=
least
free places in America.=20
Speech codes were put into place to stifle criticism of the racial quotas=
and
preferences employed by colleges and universities to produce "diversity." In
the name of diversity, they impose uniformity of opinion. They are aimed at
any
speech which is deemed, by anyone, to be offensive to blacks or other
minorities; hence their use to suppress speech that is offensive to those=
who
excuse or cheer the attacks of September 11.=20
Why has this free society allowed its colleges and universities to
systematically suppress speech in this way? Partly because most of us turn=
our
heads away. When I talk of suppression of speech on campus, most people of=
my
acquaintance, of whatever political persuasion, say this simply can't be=
true,
or it can't be this bad. The response to September 11 shows that it is true
and
it is this bad. At this time, when liberal Democrats and conservative
Republicans take exactly the same view of the September 11 attacks, it=
should
be easier for those beyond the small number who have been concerned about
suppression of speech on campus to see it for what it is. The=
institutionsthat
should be the setting for the free exchange of ideas have become=
institutions
that are the setting for the greatest suppression of the free exchange of
ideas.=20
It is time for the taxpayers and tuition-payers and alumni contributors of
this
country to demand that college and university administrators dismantle their
odious apparatus of speech suppression. This is a cause on which liberal
Democrats and conservative Republicans can agree. This is not a call for
suppression of the speech of campus radicals; quite the contrary. But it is=
a
call for ending the days when the campus radicals can suppress everyone=
else's
speech.=20
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