World Can’t Wait | September 12, 2017
Defense of white privilege costs the disadvantaged dearly. Ask someone who’s been there. American “free speech” law protects people against physical harm — and tolerates unlimited emotional harm. Victims of hate speech suffer as much as or more than victims of hate crime argues Fordham Law Professor Thane Rosenbaum.
The liberal defense of fascists’ “rights” does a lot of harm. UC Berkeley’s new chancellor Carol Christ leads the pack of misguided academics enabling the advance of fascist agenda at universities across the country. “We urge you to think very carefully about the lives you are risking in giving white supremacists an even larger platform than they already have,” concludes a letter to Christ initiated by members of the Berkeley Anthropology Department. The chancellor’s “free speech year” premiers with the promotion of right-wing talk show host Ben Shapiro, followed by the return of infamous bigot-provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, whose appearance bumps the previously scheduled Annual Distinguished Lecture by Dr. Anna Tsing, Professor of Anthropology at UC Santa Cruz.
Provision of a platform is not the same thing as free speech, writes The Guardian columnist Owen Jones, “however much it is falsely and disingenuously portrayed as such. If someone refuses to lend you a megaphone, they are not infringing your right to say what you believe: they are simply not offering you their own resources to amplify your views to a broader audience.”