In March of this year, the sociologist and writer Charles Murray visited Middlebury College to deliver a lecture. Before he could even begin, the event was set upon by a mob of students who shut it down and ultimately sent a professor to the emergency room.
Students who participated in the mob received no real punishment but the incident drew national attention to the issue of free speech on college campuses.
Last night, Murray made his first televised appearance since then on Tucker Carlson’s show. He described the scene at Middlebury as the opposite of what higher education should be.
From the FOX News Insider:
Charles Murray: Protests Are a ‘Repudiation of What the University is All About’Libertarian sociologist Charles Murray discussed protests against his speeches on college campuses.Murray wrote “The Bell Curve,” and often speaks about the “growing class divide” that has led to the rise of President Trump.Murray said he was stunned that many of those protesting his speech at Middlebury College in New England proudly said they never actually read his work.”Faculty members bragged about not reading my stuff,” he said. “But they still knew I was a bad guy.”…He said that the Middlebury incident is not necessarily an epidemic but that it is “toxic” to the belief that universities are spaces for intellectualism.”What went on inside that lecture hall was a repudiation of what the university is all about,” Murray said.
Watch the video below:
In the weeks following the protest, the Southern Poverty Law Center was named as one of the inspirations for the mob. Yet now, even the SPLC is defending Murray’s right to speak.
Michael Gryboski reports at the Christian Post:
Charles Murray Has Right to Speak on Campus, Says Group Cited by Violent ProtestersThe Southern Poverty Law Center has stated that a scholar they labeled “extremist” for purportedly advancing “racist pseudoscience” had a right to speak at a public college where he was violently protested against.In March, controversial American Enterprise Institute researcher and author Charles Murray was intensely protested at Middlebury College by students who did not want him to speak on campus. The students cited SPLC as their source when claiming Murray was too extreme to be allowed to speak.In written testimony submitted to the United States Senate Committee of the Judiciary on Tuesday, SPLC President Richard Cohen explained that while his organization labels Murray an “extremist” who advances racist ideology, he has a right to speak on a college campus.”No matter how repugnant one may find a speaker’s views, as long as the college has a policy of allowing student groups to invite people from outside their campus to speak, they cannot pick and choose based on the views the speaker holds,” stated Cohen.
Murray responded to the SPLC’s false allegations of racism months ago:
Featured image via YouTube.
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