The freedom to ignore hate speech
Encouraged by viral news coverage, the left and right alike imagine UC Berkeley is a hotbed of student activism. The left: liberal students protest hateful Trumpinspired speech. The right: social-justice-warrior students kill free speech.
The reality is much less exciting: sleep-deprived students, ill-prepared administrators and widespread apathy.
How did studying for finals become the front line of the “battle” for free speech? This most recent spat began when Berkeley College Republicans invited conservative pundit Ann Coulter to speak on campus, originally scheduled for Thursday.
Administrators feared her appearance would cause a mob-like protest similar to what happened at the Milo Yiannopoulos event in February. So they insisted on postponing Coulter’s speech to next week so they could find a less exposed venue. Coulter claimed the postponement was in effect a cancellation, because next week is Cal’s “dead week” — the week before finals when no classes are held and students would be less likely to attend. The Republican club and its outside-of-Berkeley supporters, the Young Americas Foundation, responded by suing the university for infringing on their First Amendment right to freedom of speech. The backers then pulled their support of the event citing “safety concerns,” prompting Coulter to ultimately cancel her appearance.
The one thing everyone has gotten right is that this is no longer the heyday of Berkeley activism that birthed the Free Speech Movement — not because free speech is dead, but because the vast majority of students are not involved.
When Yiannopoulos came to campus nearly three months ago, he was met with modest student protest and violence from non-student activists. Yiannopoulos, an alt-right provocateur, gained notoriety for racist, sexist remarks, and ultimately was disowned by members of his circle for comments defending pedophilia.
In the run-up to his event that eventually was canceled, masked members of an antifascist “antifa” anarchist group , which is not a registered student group, smashed windows and set off fireworks. Pictures of their violence made headlines and “Berkeley” took the the fall. President Trump weighed in on Twitter: “If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view — NO FEDERAL FUNDS?”
There should have been better crowd control, no question. But blaming students for the chaos and declaring colleges enemies of free speech plays right into the provocateur’s hands.
Coulter and Yiannopoulos belong to a class of commentators who exist to stir the pot. Yiannopoulos has even admitted, “I don’t care about politics. I only talk about politics because of Trump.” They say outlandish things about people of color, immigrants, women, gay people and others, come to college campuses, get banned, and have the perfect gotcha! moment.
Meanwhile, free speech is alive and well on campus, just in less headlining ways. The Berkeley College Republicans’ president has a weekly column in the school paper. The Republicans’ counterpart, the CalDems, hosts its own speakers and events. These quiet forms of speech on campus are more important than cries from the loudspeaker Coulter got to hold in this debacle. She should have been allowed to speak, and just like the students, we should have ignored her. Madeleine Chang is a Chronicle editorial writer. Email: mchang@ sfchronicle.com