We are supporters of free speech and equality for all groups, but some colleges and universities have perhaps gone a step too far and placed their social agendas, justified or not, ahead of academics and civility.
In doing so, these campuses across the United States have found themselves embroiled in a fight to police free speech. The University of Illinois at Chicago has taken it to new heights by launching a campaign titled “Words Matter!” This program features workshops aimed at words like crazy, ghetto, and illegal alien. Apparently the use of these words isn’t “inclusive.” Ironically, the workshop also targets the expression “man up.”
The university claims their mission isn’t to hinder free speech, but to highlight how powerful words are in hopes to create a happy space full of rainbows and hand-holding students skipping to class. If the university hopes to create a welcoming and inclusive environment by policing words, they have an entire encyclopedia of cuss words to work with. Or they could just man up.
In perhaps the most infamous incident of stifling free speech, residents of Berkeley, CA took to the streets to violently rip apart their own community in response to a scheduled speech at UC Berkeley featuring conservative speaker Milo Yiannopoulos. Citizens vandalized property, set fires, and carried out acts of violence against one another.
The riot got so out of hand, the speech had to be cancelled out of safety concerns. Liberal UC Berkeley successfully demonstrated that tolerance and inclusion only works for them when the message falls in line with certain beliefs.
Not everyone on our staff loves Milo either, but c’mon…is burning stuff down over a speaker that you do not have to listen to, the way to go?
