Holy Cross Student Protesters Try to Shout Down Speech by Heather Mac Donald
“My oppression is not a delusion!” “Your sexism is not welcome!” “Your racism is not welcome!”
Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald gave a speech at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts recently, but the event was marred by students who tried to shout her down.
In a scenario which has become all too common, students first tried to manipulate how many people could attend, then turned to chanting over her speech.
Jennifer Kabbany reports at The College Fix:
VIDEO: Shouting protestors restrict access to Heather Mac Donald speech at Holy Cross
Student protestors at College of the Holy Cross recently blocked access for many hoping to hear a speech by conservative scholar Heather Mac Donald by getting in line early, filling the venue to capacity so others waiting to get in were turned away, then filed out 10 minutes into the speech while chanting over and over “my oppression is not a delusion.”
Audio and video obtained by The College Fix shows the demonstrators chant for nearly two minutes as they left, yelling: “My oppression is not a delusion!” “Your sexism is not welcome!” “Your racism is not welcome!” “Your homophobia is not welcome!” “YOU are not welcome!”
As they exited, Mac Donald spoke to them about the abundant resources offered at the private, Worcester, Massachusetts-based Jesuit institution, which charges $54,000 a year in tuition. But they just kept repeating their chants as they filed out the door.
“Either you talk and try to hash out your differences using the power of human rationality or force is what remains. It’s a shame,” Mac Donald told the remaining audience members. “I would have really enjoyed the opportunity to hear about the oppression at Holy Cross and be able to debate whether the perception or impression is valid or not.”
See the video below:
Something similar recently happened at Bucknell University. Note how The Bucknellian frames the protest as a “rally” in the headline:
Students rally against Heather Mac Donald
On Nov. 14, more than 45 University students protested against Heather Mac Donald, a conservative political commentator who spoke against institutional efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. A picket line protest was staged by the Bucknell University Democratic Socialists of America, a new club that reflects and supports the values of the rising progressive movement.
Students gathered in the Grove with signs praising diversity and denouncing racism, reading slogans such as “Hate Speech ≠ Freedom of Speech.” The students banded together in winter coats with hot chocolate, chanting “Hey hey! Ho Ho! Heather Mac has got to go!” and “No justice! No peace!”
Mac Donald addressed this in a recent column at the Wall Street Journal. It’s behind a paywall, but she posted an excerpt at The Manhattan Institute site:
Why Are College Students So Afraid of Me?
Few things upset American college students more than being told they aren’t oppressed. I recently spoke at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. I argued that American undergraduates are among the most privileged individuals in history by virtue of their unfettered access to knowledge. Far from being discriminated against, students are surrounded by well-meaning faculty who want all of them to succeed.
About 15 minutes into my talk, as I was discussing Renaissance humanism, a majority of the audience in the packed auditorium stood up and started chanting: “My oppression is not a delusion!” The chanters then declared that my sexism, racism and homophobia weren’t welcome on campus. “You are not welcome,” they added, as if I didn’t know.
In the land of higher education, oppression has become currency. Taking it away from students is tantamount to theft. This has to be fixed.
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Comments
Suggestion: colleges that do not allow for freedom of speech on campus (as per this example), are not eligible to get federal $ through student loans. I think the colleges would quickly find a way to put an end to this. Make the colleges have to pass an annual certification that they don’t allow the shut-down of free speech.
Suggestion: get the federal government out of issuing or guaranteeing student loans at all.
Definitely get the Federal Government out of the student loan business. Put the Universities on the hook. Then let us see how many people are graduated with useless degrees and no hope or means of paying the university back.
Make the colleges have to pass an annual certification that they don’t allow the shut-down of free speech.
Oppression!!
Great idea, as is not guaranteeing student loans to those who don’t really want to be a part of higher education.
How to do it, though? President Trump is keeping it going despite the left’s death by a thousand cuts strategy, so it has to be easy, quick and automatic.
Colleges hosting a speaker where they can’t/won’t allow all views to be heard, stop funding their buildings tomorrow. Most have been built through bonds/loans/authorities etc. Put a clause in the contract, 1/2 the bill comes due after one incident, the rest if it happens again.
Every student identified by a video- stop the loan tomorrow. Put an amendment in the paperwork, loan is valid while actually learning, not demonstrating.
It has to be universal, cheap to carry out, automatic and fair, enough so some judge in Alaska or Oregon can’t strike it down for the entire nation. I’m sure lawyers know how to do it, let’s see.
Love this idea…Universities have become leaders of a cult (Their Students) Professors have no accountability. They need to record every classroom teaching so discipline and accountability may be taught. Once you show parents where their money is going they are far more likely to pull their children out of these Cults.
If you think going to a (once) elite college is oppression, wait until you get your first performance review (assuming you can get a job).
And if that review isn’t 100% positive, they’ll have the EEOC on speed dial.
Yet again we see it. In The Coming of the Third Reich (2003), historian Richard J. Evans explains how, in the early days of National Socialist Germany, Stormtroopers (Brownshirts) “organized campaigns against unwanted professors in the local newspapers [and] staged mass disruptions of their lectures.” To express dissent from Nazi positions became a matter of taking one’s life into one’s hands. The idea of people of opposing viewpoints airing their disagreements in a civil and mutually respectful manner was gone. One was a Nazi, or one was silent (and fearful).
Today’s fascists call themselves “anti-fascists.” Just like the Nazis, they are totalitarian: they are determined not to allow their opponents to murmur the slightest whisper of dissent. Forcibly suppressing the speech of someone with whom one disagrees is a quintessentially fascist act.
The teachers of these poor oppressed students are bad people. So are the cowardly administrators that allow this “teaching”.
This happens because College Administrators *want* it to happen. Proof: consider if a Planned Parenthood representative was speaking, and pro-life group tried to shut it down. 500 state police would be there in 5 minutes, busting heads, and any who were students would be immediately expelled.
Between 1987 until 2011-12 (most recent data available)—universities and colleges collectively added 517,636 administrators and professional employees, or an average of 87 every working day. Professors don’t teach nearly as much as they used to, and adjunct professors have little benefits and barely get minimum wage.
These administrators fill the dozens of beautiful new buildings on your average campus and are likely responsible for all this bureaucracy- time to end this nonsense. There is no cost-benefit ratio to have more bureaucrats than students, and we see it here every day with their support for destruction of the educational system. It’s time to cut off the money and give these jokers the boot.
These young people are truly idiots. Let’s face the fact we’ve lost them to their own corruption and laziness.
What we can’t do is allow them any room at the control of our lives. We’ve done this in the past by ignoring the crisis brewing, and by electing the most disgustingly corrupt and feckless people (boehner, mccain, mcconnell, flake, corker, murkowsky, etc.) to protect our interests and the interest of future innocent generations.
Not listening to McDonald is the loss of the stupid little children.
She is one of the finest minds commenting on our society today.
When she speaks, I listen.
I had the privilege of a talking to her on the telephone: fine mind, and a very nice person.
When your core beliefs and principles wither when debated fairly, then you restrict speech and shelter them from scrutiny. Placing onerous restrictions and requiring excessive security are some tactics used. It is particularly silly when the reasons for security are from the limiting side.
When your core beliefs and principles wither when debated fairly, then you restrict speech and shelter them from scrutiny. Placing onerous restrictions and requiring excessive security are some tactics used. It is particularly questionable when the reasons for security are from the limiting side.
Sorry, near duplicate post. Meant to edit.
“My oppression is not a delusion!”
And neither is your grandeur.
The arguments for doing college through much cheaper MOOC or other online technology are only getting stronger.