Public
and most private U.S. universities tend to lean liberal. We have seen
incidents of alt-right speakers being invited, mysteriously, to
universities where the scheduled speeches were protested.
Milo
Yiannopoulos, notably, canceled an early February appearance at Berkeley
due to protests. Late last month, Ann Coulter similarly canceled an
appearance on the same campus recognized as the birthplace of the free
speech movement of the 60s. The protests against Yiannopoulos turned
ugly, destructive, riotous. Resistance protesters eschew violence
leaving us with a second mystery. Who were the violent protesters?
Today's story from the New York Times provides an answer to one question: Who invites these speakers?
Students
at the University at Buffalo gathered ahead of an appearance there this
month by Robert Spencer, a conservative author and blogger.Credit Brendan Bannon for The New York Times
BUFFALO
— “Let’s give it up for the racists that are hosting this event!”
someone yelled, and the crowd roared, foot-stomping in unison, then
breaking into song: Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.” One member
of the audience held up a sign, “Queers Against Islamaphobia.” Another
unfurled a banner: “Muslims Welcome. Fascists Get Out.”
Close
to 200 students kept up the noise for more than an hour in a University
at Buffalo lecture hall on May 1, mostly drowning out the evening’s
featured speaker, Robert Spencer, a conservative author and blogger who
espouses a dark view of Islam.
The
event appeared to follow a familiar script, in which a large contingent
of liberals muzzles a provocative speaker invited by a small
conservative student club. But the propelling force behind the event —
and a number of recent heat-seeking speeches on college campuses — was a
national conservative group that is well funded, highly organized and
on a mission, in its words, to “restore sanity at your school.”
So these appearances are arranged and financed, not by the schools, but by an organization, Young America's Foundation.
The speeches are bait. Hearing that an alt-right speaker is scheduled to speak at a school, students are certain to protest. We know that protests
potentially draw troublemakers.
Resistance protests are peaceful.
We do not know who the troublemakers were at Berkeley but they certainly
were not part of the Resistance. The marches in cities, so far, have
been peaceful. So why this marked difference on campus?
At the
risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I would suggest that these
Berkeley incidents were intentionally set on that campus because its
history guaranteed protest - that much is obvious. I would suggest
further, that the rioters were part of the staging.
Protest
organizers, going forward, must remain mindful that these alt-right
speakers are bait. Protest behavior is the prey. Suppressing alt-right
speakers inhibits their 1st Amendment rights. If we do that, we give the
G.O.P. exactly the excuse they are looking for to push these laws that
are intended to criminalize our own protests.
I will not pretend
to have answers, but sometimes silence can be deafening. Silence and
signs, shirts, and banners. We can predict that where these folks come
in to speak, the riot goons will also appear. For that, we must be
prepared and also plan to be distinct, separate, and present marked non-violent contrast.
