Milo Yiannopoulos was invited to speak at NYU on October 31 in order to discuss the politics of Halloween.
However, on October 30, the following Statement from NYU Spokesman John Beckman, Sr. VP for Public Affairs, was released to the public:
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio today requested that NYU postpone and reschedule the classroom appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos for public safety reasons in light of nearby the Halloween parades and NYPD assessments of risk. Given the importance of close coordination between NYU’s Public Safety personnel and the NYPD to ensuring safety, the University agreed to the postponement.
The University first learned of Professor Rectenwald’s invitation to Mr. Yiannopoulos from news reports on Sunday. NYU Public Safety officials began working on safety planning with police officials Monday.
In response, Milo made the following declaration on his Facebook page:
“As of today, I am without question the most censored man in America. The entire city of New York is terrified of one gay man stepping out of line and calling out the Left as the intolerant, censorious crybabies they are. And they just proved it—by censoring me again. I couldn’t ask for more conclusive proof: The Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, today demanded my talk at NYU be canceled (“rescheduled” in their euphemistic language) and the President of NYU has complied. So. It’s not happening. I’ll post my talk online tomorrow instead. RIP, First Amendment. They’re not even pretending any more.”
Milo did live stream his planned discussion, beginning the video wearing his Halloween costume dressed as Christine Blasey Ford. He then gave a talk on the history of purpose of Halloween interspersed with politically incorrect jokes. He criticized the new policing of Halloween: “Anyway, today I’m going to tell you why Halloween is awesome, and why you should save it from the scolds and nannies who are coming to take it away, telling you your costumes are ‘problematic,’ ‘racist,’ and, if they swallowed a dictionary or have attended a gender studies class, ‘toxic expressions of cishet white patriarchal oppression.’”
Milo resurrected the character of “Dr. Christine” and made an appearance in Palm Beach, Florida at David Horowitz’s Restoration Weekend held November 15th – 18th. Other speakers included Governor Mike Huckabee, Brian Kilmeade, Katie Hopkins, Stanley Kurtz, J. Christian Adams, Bill Gertz, Sebastian Gorka, Joe diGenova, Dan Bongino, Kevin Jackson, Daniel Greenfield, Robert Spencer and David Horowitz.
The newly released video, reminiscent of a Comedy Central Celebrity roast, may be found here:
On November 10, 2018, Cassady Fendlay, Communications Director for the 2017 Women’s March, decided to weigh in on the recent controversy surrounding accusations of anti-semitism levied at the current leaders of the organization.
In an article titled “Deciding Who We Throw Away,” published on Medium, she begins the article with the following:
“You can call this the defining test of the Women’s March all you want, but really it’s the defining test of white American women.”
Linda Sarsour took a similar tack (referencing the problem of white women) in a Facebook post published on Nov 9 (See link below)
Fendlay, in her own article, plays the victim card–well, several victim cards actually, in a rambling piece on why we should not criticize the Women’s March.
(Quick review: victim playing is used to solicit sympathy; divert or deflect attention; imply a misunderstanding; insinuate trickery by others; emphasize unjust treatment by others; shift blame in order to avoid taking responsibility.)
Fendlay shifts blame to the following circumstances and people for any criticism of anti-semitism levied at the Women’s March or its leaders:
History: Movements addressing oppression are always vilified, distorted and smeared. This is simply to be expected with such cutting edge organization.
White women’s outrage/White supremacy. Fendlay suggests that well meaning white women wanted the Women’s March to be about all women rather than placing a special focus on women of color.
“When millions of us showed up to march, there was a prevailing feeling among women of color, especially black women, that the white women who were showing up to march were not really ready to be allies in this fight.”
“Because of how power operates in society, white people’s rage is a dangerous weapon.”
“This is how white outrage actually reinforces white supremacy.”
The Press: “Even the New York Times went along with this narrative, publishing a critical and patronizing piece accusing us of ‘making white women feel unwelcome’.”
Alyssa Milano: “This moment, with Alyssa Milano, is exactly the type of thing black women were expecting. Alyssa is acting in accordance with the tradition of white women who use the labor of women of color when it’s convenient for them, and then use their power to trash those women when it becomes more expedient.”
“Alyssa Milano is calling for this specific kind of performative outrage, making a public statement condemning a Black man.”
“Alyssa Milano and all the white women lined up behind her are actually enforcing the power of white supremacy through their misguided attempt to challenge hate speech.”
Minister Farrakhan’s Importance: “The demand to denounce Farrakhan may seem logical and even simple, but is it? Certainly his words are anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynist, and obviously that is incompatible with our clearly stated values and principles.”
“As Tim Wise insightfully writes, there is a history here. ‘This shifting of attention from right-wing, white bigotry and anti-Semitism to Farrakhan is a predictable pivot… And it’s one about which most white folks don’t know very much, but about which black folks certainly do. It’s a history of white people telling black people who their “legitimate” leaders and spokespeople are, or should be, and who among them is illegitimate and needs to be rejected.’ ”
Careful observers of the Women’s March and its organizers have known for some time that the message of the Women’s March wasn’t quite as unifying as it appeared on the surface.
The earliest sign of prejudice and hateful messaging that was uncovered was Linda Sarsour’s public claim on Twitter that fellow female activists Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Bridgette Gabriel needed an ass whooping and stated, “I wish I could take their vaginas away–they don’t deserve to be women.”
Sadly, I suspect due to political correctness and societal pressures to not criticize Islam, this attack by Sarsour was at first only discussed by conservative outlets.
Meanwhile, the pussy hats kept rolling in. You could buy them online, take classes on knitting your own, or even get them from this questionable outlet with a consumer warning:
During the height of the Me Too Movement and Believe all Women atmosphere, claims of sexual harassment against Sarsour made by Asmi Fathelbab were effectively dismissed. It would seem Sarsour was above criticism. (Fathelbab’s claims of harassment may be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/asmilegalfund)
In late August/early September of 2018, at the ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) convention, Sarsour was quoted as saying:
“If you’re on the side of the oppressor, or you’re defending the oppressor or you’re actually trying to humanize the oppressor,” she said, “then that’s a problem sisters and brothers and we got to be able to say: that is not the position of the Muslim American community.”
“You as an American Muslim are complicit in the occupation of Palestinians, in the murder of Palestinian protesters. So when we start debating in the Muslim community about Palestine, it tells me a lot about you and about the type of faith that you have in your heart.”
In a speech that clearly mixes church and state, the rhetoric was not widely criticized or reported–in fact, I had to dig it out of Jewish publications to find adequate coverage.
But the recent behavior of Minister Louis Farrakhan who uses his own religious ideology to justify his anti-semitic views, has brought Linda Sarsour to a position where the general public is willing to criticize her. Sadly, it takes someone like Alyssa Milano, a Hollywood celebrity, to make it okay to talk about the Sarsour problem, when many skeptics have been saying this for some time.
Now, Sarsour will deflect from the deeper questions about her credibilty by turning the tables; Sarsour and the Women’s March are not the problem here. It is white women, her white sisters, that are the problem.
In a lengthy Facebook post dated November 8, 2018 Sarsour says:
“I am focused, always am and always will be because my people count on it. There is too much at stake in this moment. I know what I am about to write will be uncomfortable for some. I write this out of love and necessity. I write this as a call to action and an invitation to the higher ground.
This is to you, my white sisters. Now I know some of you will understand what I am saying and have done the internal work to show up as allies for the most marginalized but we can all continue to evolve. Others have not started.
Women of color have worked hard to show you that your liberation is bound up with ours. That we are in fact in this together whether you want to admit it or not. There are some troubling patterns that stem from decades/centuries of history where white women have been used to uphold the patriarchy and white supremacy, consciously or subconsciously.
I want to break this down as easy as I can. I want you to absorb it, analyze it, think about it. I don’t expect you to agree with it all. I do expect you to be uncomfortable but I want you to sit in that discomfort because there was never a moment in history where true transformation happened that was not uncomfortable. Discomfort brings change.
Don’t be like the white women suffragists who worked side by side with Black women to get the right to vote and when it was granted to white women in 1920, Black women still had to wait till 1964.
Don’t be the white women who will show up in Black and Brown Movement spaces and/or stand up to rally against Trump but don’t have the courage to stand up against members of your family who are supporters of Trump.
Don’t be like the white women who erase decades of hard work of women of color because you have critiques of them and tear them down when you know in your heart they are the leaders we need right now.
Don’t be part of the 3 out of 4 white women who would rather vote for a racist, anti-women, islamophobe over a more than qualified Black woman for Governor.
Don’t be the white women who puts conditions on her solidarity with women of color.
Don’t be the white women who will only show up if they are directly impacted but are nowhere to be found when an issue impacts Black People, immigrants, Muslims, and other marginalized people.
Don’t be the white women who call us to do work with them but don’t want to name the real threat – white supremacy – because they think it’s divisive.
Don’t be the white women who will ignore the real threats of white supremacy but use deflections and distractions to blame the violence happening in our communities on anyone and anything but white supremacists, white nationalism and white supremacy.
Be the white women who challenge each other.
Be the white women who see their liberation tied to all women in the world.
Be the white women that understand that unity is not uniformity and that we won’t always agree. We can’t. We come from different places, different upbringings and different communities. We can agree that we all deserve to live freely and safely.
Be the white women who doesn’t join other white women to tear women of color down but instead seek information and understanding.
Be the white women who asks questions that uses critical thinking and doesn’t get consumed by hate, misinformation on the internet.
Be the white women that understand that there is a divide and conquer game being played and not fall for it. Be the ones who understand that too much is at stake for us to be divided.
Be the white women that de-centers their privilege to give platform to women of color who don’t have the same.
Be the white women who stand boldly and unapologetically for justice for ALL people.
Be the white women who will be able to say decades from now that you were on the RIGHT SIDE of history and you stood with the freedom fighters of this generation, yes, many of whom are women of color.
I am open to having dialogue and conversation with whomever is ready. BUT we have to do this work. I need YOU to do this work.”
——
Another dumping on the white woman problem is provided here by Sarsour’s communications director:
COMPASS Pathways, a life sciences company dedicated to accelerating patient access to evidence-based innovation in mental health, has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a clinical trial in psilocybin therapy for treatment-resistant depression. Regulatory approvals for the trial have already been given in the UK, the Netherlands and Canada.
The trial is a phase IIb dose-ranging study with 216 patients taking part in 12 to 15 research sites across Europe and North America. It will begin in the UK later this month and sites in other countries will join the trial as further regulatory approvals are received.
Psilocybin therapy combines a dose of psilocybin (a psychoactive medicine and the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms”) with psychological support, and has shown promising signals of efficacy and safety as treatment for depression in academic studies in the UK and US. If the trial is successful, it will be followed by phase III studies.
George Goldsmith, Chairman and Co-founder of COMPASS Pathways, said, “We are excited to be starting this landmark trial which has the potential to transform lives. Depression is the leading cause of ill-health and disability worldwide, and treatment-resistant depression affects more than 100 million people. It is a huge unmet need and the trial will teach us more about how this new approach might address it.”
Ekaterina Malievskaia, Chief Medical Officer and Co-founder of COMPASS, said: “The design of this study has been a truly collaborative effort, with scientists, clinicians, patient representatives and regulators from Europe and North Americaworking together with the goal of helping patients suffering with treatment-resistant depression.”
About COMPASS Pathways
COMPASS Pathways is a life sciences company, founded in 2016 to accelerate patient access to evidence-based innovation in mental health. We are developing psilocybin therapy through a late-stage clinical trial in Europe and North America for patients with treatment-resistant depression. We will improve mental health through the development of new patient care pathways, based on advances in neuroscience, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and technology.
