Universities won’t defeat racism with censorship – Washington Examiner

Amid a revival of resistance to racial injustice, progressives at Tulane University in New Orleans should have taken great pride in a campus event featuring award-winning author Edward Ball and his new anti-racist book Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy. The work has been highly praised as an important story about the history of white supremacy in the South by scholars such as Ibram X. Kendi and Saidiya Hartman. The event was even to be moderated by University of Kentucky professor of African American and Africana Studies Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, whose research areas include racial capitalism as well as prison abolition and feminist and queer politics.

Rather than praise Tulane for tackling the tough subject of white supremacy in the South, more than 500 students revolted in the comments section of the (now deleted) Instagram post announcing the event. Students insisted that the event was harmful and offensive and would advance white supremacy. Tulanes student government (in which I served one uneventful semester) released a statement calling the event "violent toward the experience and work of Black people" and demanding that it be canceled.

Tulane quickly caved to demands and indefinitely postponed the event in an apology posted on Instagram. In the statement, Tulane apologized for causing distress for many in our community and promised to incorporate [black, indigenous, and people of color] voices from our community in the next iteration of the event. Students seeking to cancel the discussion, however, were not satisfied with the apology, arguing that even including voices from people of color would do nothing to promote or influence an anti-racism atmosphere.

This raises the question: If speakers with resumes like Ball and Pelot-Hobbs advance white supremacy even when directly speaking against its horrors, then who can reasonably speak on the subject?

During my four years on campus, I organized over a dozen events, including a lecture featuring a leader in Hong Kongs protest movement, a discussion led by a North Korean defector and a Holocaust survivor, and an award-winning conference on criminal justice reform. I even started a student-led think tank to create further discussion around justice reform and other important causes.

Attendees at every single event I organized during my time at Tulane came from varying racial, economic, and ideological backgrounds. Thanks to my ability to speak freely, I was able to organize events I cared about, and students were able to discuss tough topics.

Tulane empowered me to take control of my education and engage with students, professors, and the New Orleans community through free expression. But the campus culture now demanded by student activists and seemingly agreed to by my alma mater would leave open discourse at Tulane precarious at best and seriously diminished at worst.

I graduated this May as a white Hispanic American, and I wonder whether I would be allowed to speak if invited to Tulane to discuss my work to advance criminal justice reform. Would my fathers personal experience as a man of color in the South give me the right to speak on campus? What about the work I have done to reform Louisianas broken justice system? Would these things be enough for the student government I served in to allow me to speak?

With todays campus culture, who knows?

The fact that these questions are raised at all is proof that my alma mater, which I love dearly, is dangerously close to following the national trend of chilling discourse on campus. Rather than advancing open discourse, which has been the catalyst for so much social change, Tulane risks capitulating to students who reject those principles entirely.

One of the greatest features of the American university has been the hospitable home it provides to radical open discussion and free speech. I hope this incident becomes a learning experience for Tulane and its students of what happens when those principles disappear.

Tulane still has much to do to make the university a better place for many students, particularly low-income students and students of color. Canceling speech cannot be the way forward, and it sets everyone back in their work to advance social progress. I would urge Tulane to host both speakers, and I would urge students to attend, ask tough questions, and bring their own speakers to campus. That is what made Tulane unique during my time there, and it would be a disservice to the student body if it gave up those values.

Marcus Maldonado is a recent graduate of Tulane University and founder of the Wave Center for Policy and Enterprise, Tulanes student-led think tank.

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Universities won't defeat racism with censorship - Washington Examiner