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<\/a><\/p>\nby Daniel Lauer<\/p>\n
Anti-free speech demonstrators protesting in the name of \u201csocial justice<\/a>\u201d could cost The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington\u00a0$3.8 million in legal payments.<\/p>\n In late May, fifty Evergreen students barraged\u00a0long-time biology professor Bret Weinstein for refusing to comply with radical Left-wing activists\u2019 calls for a Day of Absence for white faculty and students. The leftist protesters, convinced Weinstein\u00a0is a white supremacist for daring to show up to work on their own racist segregation day, hurled vitriolic insults and demanded the college terminate the professor\u2019s employment contract.\u00a0Videos\u00a0<\/a>of Evergreen students verbally\u00a0assailing\u00a0<\/a>the professor and school officials quickly went viral.<\/p>\n After being told by the college chief of police that he was\u00a0\u201cnot safe\u201d<\/a>\u00a0on campus, Weinstein wisely had his family\u00a0live in hiding<\/a>. In response, the beleaguered Weinstein has filed\u00a0a\u00a0$3.8 million tort claim<\/a>\u00a0against the college.<\/p>\n Weinstein himself is no card-carrying conservative, however.\u00a0Weinstein,\u00a0a self-professed liberal, has taught biology for fourteen years, is an outspoken Sen. Bernie Sanders supporter, and by all accounts is \u201cthe kind of teacher that students at one of the most left-wing colleges in the country would admire,\u201d as the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0glowingly put it in its June 1\u00a0article<\/a>, \u201cWhen the Left Turns on Its Own.\u201d<\/p>\n Shutting down conservatives has become de rigueur. But now anti-free-speech activists are increasingly turning their ire on free-thinking progressives. Liberals shouldn\u2019t cede responsibility to defend free speech on college campuses to conservatives. After all, without free speech, what\u2019s liberalism about?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ironically, when Weinstein was a student he\u00a0penned\u00a0<\/a>an\u00a0October 6, 1987 opinion piece to\u00a0the Daily Pennsylvanian<\/em>\u00a0decrying a fraternity for hiring strippers during a fraternity rush party\u00a0<\/em>as sexist and abhorrent. Weinstein chose to voice his opinions peacefully; his students chose wanton chaos. In an\u00a0op-ed<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0Wall Street Journal,\u00a0<\/em>Weinstein notes that the Evergreen faculty administration\u00a0has done\u00a0little to preserve order, free speech, and diversity of thought as the school has \u201cslipped into madness\u201d:<\/p>\n Equality of outcome is a discredited concept, failing on both logical and historical grounds, as anyone knows who has studied the misery of the 20th century.<\/em><\/p>\n [The college administration\u2019s\u00a0new race-based hiring plan would] shift the college \u201cfrom a diversity agenda\u201d to an \u201cequity agenda\u201d by, among other things, requiring an \u201cequity justification\u201d for every faculty hire.<\/em><\/p>\n This presented traditional independent academic minds with a choice: Accept the plan \u00a0and let the intellectual descendants of Critical Race Theory dictate the bounds of permissible thought to the sciences and the rest of the college, or insist on discussing the plan\u2019s shortcomings and be branded as racists. Most of my colleagues chose the former, and the protesters are in the process of articulating the terms. I dissented and ended up teaching in the park.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Day of Absence that led to the incident stems from a tradition at Evergreen in which black students and faculty leave campus to display the importance of their roles at the school, following the theme of Douglas Turner Ward\u2019s play, \u201cDay of Absence.\u201d<\/p>\n But\u00a0in 2017, Reason\u00a0reports<\/a>, the tradition was altered: \u201ca student group asked that their white peers and instructors take a \u2018Day of Absence\u2019 from campus life to \u2018explore issues of race, equity, allyship, inclusion and privilege.\u2019\u201d A powerful tradition has been morphed into a campaign to snuff out free speech, and silence dissent. Unfortunately, Evergreen is not the only campus with such problems.<\/p>\n Freedom of speech on college campuses in America is under widespread attack. CRC has covered much\u00a0of the\u00a0campus anti-free speech epidemic<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Claremont McKenna College<\/a>, where student activists were\u00a0disciplined\u00a0appropriately.<\/p>\n
\nWatch\u00a0the trailer for\u00a0No Safe Spaces<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 the\u00a0upcoming documentary made in partnership with Capital Research Center and Dangerous Documentaries,\u00a0starring comedian Adam Carolla and syndicated radio host Dennis Prager.<\/h5>\n
Prager and Carolla explore the threat to America\u2019s free speech \u2013 and it all starts on our country\u2019s college campuses. See the trailer\u00a0here<\/a><\/strong>:<\/h5>\n