Category: Free Speech Issues
Milo Counter Events Abound During Free Speech Week: SPLC to Marches to Clowns
September 19, 2017
A Presentation by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
The Alternative Right, commonly known as the Alt-Right, is a set of far-right ideologies, groups and individuals whose core belief is that “white identity” is under attack by multicultural forces using “political correctness” and “social justice” to undermine white people and “their” civilization.
A Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) expert on hate and extremism will share information on an orchestrated campaign by white nationalists to make college campuses their battleground. The battle is not over free speech or political conservatism. Come learn about what they’re pushing, why they’re obsessed with UC Berkeley and how we can effectively resist.
Speaker Bio
Ryan Lenz is the Senior Investigative Writer for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project and editor of its Hatewatch blog. Before joining the SPLC in 2010, Lenz was a regional reporter for the Associated Press and an Iraq war correspondent for the wire service from 2005 to 2008. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
The SPLC is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. SPLC is headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama and have of offices in Atlanta, Miami, Tallahassee, Jackson, Mississippi and New Orleans.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/14/us/splc-guide-dealing-with-alt-right/index.html
Sponsored by: Division of Equity & Inclusion, diversity.berkeley.edu
September 20, 2017
Empathy Tent at UC Berkeley Sproul Plaza
Public · Hosted by Center for Building a Culture of Empathy and Compassion
3 PM – 7 PM PDT, Sproul Plaza
Bancroft Way, Berkeley
Join us at UC Berekely at Sproul Plaza. We will offer listening, trainings and practice in empathic dialogues. Discuss the current political situation on campus between the left and the right. How do you feel about the upcoming Free Speech week?
From 6pm to 7pm we will be training Empathy Circle practice with the Decal Class on Empathy.
http://EmpathyTent.com/
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Saturday, September 23, 2017
No Hate in the Bay: March Against White Supremacy!
starting at 63rd St & Adeline in Berkeley, CA
begins at noon on Saturday, September 23rd
Join fellow community members to let fascists, the alt-right and all white supremacists know that they are not are not welcome in the Bay Area.
Stay through the march or meet up afterward for a festival of resistance to celebrating black, POC, Muslim, immigrant, queer, trans, dis-abled, and interfaith communities!
This march was organized so that we can take the streets on our own terms – counter-demonstrations are very important, but we live here, this is our community, and every day is a good day to be united against white supremacy.
This march takes place the day before upcoming far-right, racist events set to take place on (and off) UC Berkeley campus, but it isn’t taking place at the same time as any of those events nor is it a specific response.
This is for us to come together on a day of our choosing and show unity and solidarity in the struggles against all forms of oppression!
Endorsers:
Af3irm SF/Bay Area
AFSCME Council 57
Anti Police-Terror Project
AROC: Arab Resource & Organizing Center
Bay Area Queer Anti-Fascist Network (Queer As F*ck)
Berkeley Federation of Teachers, local 1078
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Catalyst Project
Code Pink Women for Peace: East Bay
Community READY Corps
Critical Resistance Oakland
The Degenderettes
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
The Center for Political Education
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Jewitch Collective: Jews, Pagans, and Those Who Love Them
Jewish Voice for Peace
John Brown Anti-Klan Bloc
Left of the Dial
Middle East Children’s Alliance
National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Oakland Brown Berets
SURJ – Oakland/Bay Area
SURJ SF – Showing Up for Racial Justice
Workers World Party – Bay Area
Interested in endorsing? Follow this link! https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSe5l-e8AeySxoQ-0C…/viewform
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September 23, 2017
We Are The Majority! We Must Defend Ourselves!
Public · Hosted by Revolutionary Workers Group
7 PM – 9 PM PDT
South Berkeley Senior Center
2939 Ellis St, Berkeley
Far right fascist groups have been growing amidst an increase in attacks on Muslims, mosques and immigrants. But we can’t afford to be scared into silence. These groups present a threat but they are small and can be stopped. We can stop these fascists by organizing in the tens of thousands to say “NO” to their messages of bigotry.
Join us for a presentation and discussion
$5.00 suggested donation. No one turned away for lack of funds.
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September 24-27, 2017
Express Yourself – A Program on Free Speech Week
Public · Hosted by ACLU of UC Berkeley – Cal ACLU
We bring to you a four-day event, a peaceful moment of reflection and show of solidarity for those vulnerable groups on campus. From faculty and departments to RSOs and graduates, we stand firmly behind the values of our community, and in defense of our loved ones. Join us for any of our events – listen to a speaker, participate in an open mic, or stop by to write a letter to your representative. Unite against hate.
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September 24-27, 2017
Send In The Clowns!
Public · Hosted by Kira B. Summer
University of Califorinia, Berkeley
Send in the clowns! Show speakers Steve Bannon, Ann Coulter, and Milo Yiannopoulos what you think of them by coming in your most ridiculous clown costume. Big, floppy shoes, red rubber noses, and don’t forget those horns for honking every time one of the three says something racist, homophobic, or misogynist. Carpooling encouraged.
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September 24 – September 27
See You At Free Speech Week!
Public · Hosted by Crowman17
Berkeley, California
Politically involved. Been to all 3 post-Milo “Battles of Berkeley”. This is the power of Orange ^ Pokemon Trainers for Trump are loved. Hindi has some of the funnest Holidays. Non violent- no joke! We settle our differences with Pokemon battles. Come get involved with us and get a burger and a beer, too. We raise up our glasses against evil forces.
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Monday, September 25, 2017
Berkeley Rally Against White Supremacy:
Defend Our Campus and Reclaim Free Speech!
In solidarity with the faculty-led call to boycott campus business as usual during so-called “Free Speech Week,” join us for a rally on Monday, Sept. 25 on UC-Berkeley, Crescent Lawn.
We are students, workers, and members of the UC Berkeley campus community, the City of Berkeley, and the larger Bay Area. We are immigrants, people of color, religious minorities, queer and trans people, leftists, liberals, and others. We think it’s time to come together in a united front, celebrate our differences in solidarity, and speak out against the hateful currents on our campus while affirming our vision of a free, inclusive, and equitable society.
Since the 2016 election, white supremacists have been coming to Berkeley to intimidate, harass, and incite violence against us. This time, the UC Berkeley administration is set to spend hundreds of thousands of public education dollars and heavily militarize the campus to ensure that Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter, Stephen Bannon, and others speak at our university from September 24-27. We believe these speakers and their supporters are dangerous to our community. They support deportations of our undocumented friends and family and are leading figures of the white supremacist movement. They uphold the structures of power that violently suppress the speech and democratic rights of workers and oppressed people around the world.
But we will not be silenced or intimidated. The massive demonstrations of August 19 in Boston and August 26-27 in the Bay Area proved that when we come together, we can protect our communities and politically defeat the bigots. In that spirit, we are meeting on Crescent Lawn to reject white supremacy, speak to each other about the world we want, and reclaim our campus, our city, and our democratic rights. Join us, bring signs, bring friends!
To endorse our rally, please fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdmjE7ZDiBt6_iiGZey54UzESlgXWcMUpvPmB4XmLC1pUjVOw/viewform
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Milo’s Message to UC Berkeley Regarding Free Speech Week as of 9.18.17
Are We Killing Free Speech? Livestream Link, Tuesday, September 19, 2017, 7 pm Eastern
Join Dave Rubin, Steve Simpson, and Bret Weinstein on September 19th for a discussion on the current state of freedom of speech in America!
Conflicts over free speech are reaching a boiling point, leading to violent clashes and even the loss of life. The headlines out of Charlottesville, Boston, Berkeley, Evergreen State College, Claremont and Middlebury show a nation divided over one of our most cherished and important rights. Navigating free speech rights is no simple task. But sitting back and doing nothing could have catastrophic implications for this generation and the next.
What can we do to address the issue and to protect the all-important right to free speech?
In, “Are We Killing Free Speech,” panelists address this question and others related to the state of free speech in America.
WHEN: Tuesday, September 19, at 7 PM ET.
WHERE: Yenching Auditorium, Harvard University, 2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 021398
PANELISTS:
Dave Rubin — Creator and host of “The Rubin Report”
Steve Simpson — Director of Legal Studies at the Ayn Rand Institute
Bret Weinstein — Former Biology professor at Evergreen State College
This event is sponsored by the Ayn Rand Institute, the Harvard University Open Campus Initiative, and the Harvard University Libertarians.
Tune in to The Rubin Report at https://www.youtube.com/c/RubinReport/live at 7:00 PM ET to watch the livestream of the panel.
Free Speech INCLUDES Hate Speech and We Are Free to Hate It
Recent US Supreme Court Rulings upholding Free Speech including “the thought we hate”:
On June 19, 2017 the US Supreme Court in Matal v. Tam, the “Slants” case:
Justice Alito wrote:
“Speech expressing ideas that offend. . .strikes at the heart of the First Amendment. Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express “the thought that we hate.”
Justice Kennedy wrote:
A law that can be directed against speech found offensive to some portion of the public can be turned against minority and dissenting views to the detriment of all. The First Amendment does not entrust that power to the government’s benevolence. Instead, our reliance must be on the substantial safeguards of free and open discussion in a democratic society.
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University of California at Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ addressed the Free Speech issue in an open letter on August 23, 2017
The law is very clear; public institutions like UC Berkeley must permit speakers invited in accordance with campus policies to speak, without discrimination in regard to point of view. The United States has the strongest free speech protections of any liberal democracy; the First Amendment protects even speech that most of us would find hateful, abhorrent and odious, and the courts have consistently upheld these protections.
But the most powerful argument for free speech is not one of legal constraint — that we’re required to allow it — but of value. The public expression of many sharply divergent points of view is fundamental both to our democracy and to our mission as a university. The philosophical justification underlying free speech, most powerfully articulated by John Stuart Mill in his book, On Liberty, rests on two basic assumptions. The first is that truth is of such power that it will always ultimately prevail; any abridgement of argument therefore compromises the opportunity of exchanging error for truth. The second is an extreme skepticism about the right of any authority to determine which opinions are noxious or abhorrent. Once you embark on the path to censorship, you make your own speech vulnerable to it.
Berkeley, as you know, is the home of the Free Speech Movement, where students on the right and students on the left united to fight for the right to advocate political views on campus. Particularly now, it is critical that the Berkeley community come together once again to protect this right. It is who we are.
Nonetheless, defending the right of free speech for those whose ideas we find offensive is not easy. It often conflicts with the values we hold as a community — tolerance, inclusion, reason and diversity. Some constitutionally-protected speech attacks the very identity of particular groups of individuals in ways that are deeply hurtful. However, the right response is not the heckler’s veto, or what some call platform denial. Call toxic speech out for what it is, don’t shout it down, for in shouting it down, you collude in the narrative that universities are not open to all speech. Respond to hate speech with more speech.
The ACLU upholds the right to Free Speech in the face of “hate speech”:
FREE SPEECH FOR HATEMONGERS?
The ACLU has often been at the center of controversy for defending the free speech rights of groups that spew hate, such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis. But if only popular ideas were protected, we wouldn’t need a First Amendment. History teaches that the first target of government repression is never the last. If we do not come to the defense of the free speech rights of the most unpopular among us, even if their views are antithetical to the very freedom the First Amendment stands for, then no one’s liberty will be secure. In that sense, all First Amendment rights are “indivisible.”
Censoring so-called hate speech also runs counter to the long-term interests of the most frequent victims of hate: racial, ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. We should not give the government the power to decide which opinions are hateful, for history has taught us that government is more apt to use this power to prosecute minorities than to protect them. As one federal judge has put it, tolerating hateful speech is “the best protection we have against any Nazi-type regime in this country.”
At the same time, freedom of speech does not prevent punishing conduct that intimidates, harasses, or threatens another person, even if words are used. Threatening phone calls, for example, are not constitutionally protected.
https://www.aclu.org/other/speech-campus
https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-statement-ann-coulter-speech
Free Speech Rights defined Courtesy United States Courts.gov:
Among other cherished values, the First Amendment protects freedom of speech. The U.S. Supreme Court often has struggled to determine what exactly constitutes protected speech. The following are examples of speech, both direct (words) and symbolic (actions), that the Court has decided are either entitled to First Amendment protections, or not.
The First Amendment states, in relevant part, that:
“Congress shall make no law…abridging freedom of speech.”
Freedom of speech includes the right:
- Not to speak (specifically, the right not to salute the flag).
West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943). - Of students to wear black armbands to school to protest a war (“Students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.”).
Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 U.S. 503 (1969). - To use certain offensive words and phrases to convey political messages.
Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971). - To contribute money (under certain circumstances) to political campaigns.
Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976). - To advertise commercial products and professional services (with some restrictions).
Virginia Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Consumer Council, 425 U.S. 748 (1976); Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U.S. 350 (1977). - To engage in symbolic speech, (e.g., burning the flag in protest).
Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989); United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990).
Freedom of speech does not include the right:
- To incite actions that would harm others (e.g., “[S]hout[ing] ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”).
Schenck v. United States,249 U.S. 47 (1919). - To make or distribute obscene materials.
Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957). - To burn draft cards as an anti-war protest.
United States v. O’Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968). - To permit students to print articles in a school newspaper over the objections of the school administration.
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988). - Of students to make an obscene speech at a school-sponsored event.
Bethel School District #43 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986). - Of students to advocate illegal drug use at a school-sponsored event.
Morse v. Frederick, __ U.S. __(2007).
Courtesy United States Courts.gov
Milo’s Teasers for Free Speech Week May 24-27; UC Berkeley Faculty Calls for Boycott
Free Speech Week teasers feature David Horowitz, Ann Coulter, Steve Bannon and Milo Yiannopoulos. Other speakers announced so far include Pamela Geller, Raheem Kassam and Alex Marlow. Milo himself promises to bring 16 Navy Seals with him as protection. More details are available at http://freespeechweek.com/
David Horowitz
Ann Coulter
Steve Bannon
Milo Yiannopoulos
Open letter from UC Berkeley Faculty, which continues to receive additional signatures.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ISjcd8Suc-Nxs61HxsGiu5NnAPOo8KyK9Zso1MsQ1Rg/edit
BOYCOTT THE ALT-RIGHT @UCBerkeley
September 24-27th
A letter from UCB Faculty to the Campus and Berkeley Community
While there has still not been an official announcement from campus administrators, we are learning that from September 24th to 27th, the University of California at Berkeley will provide a platform to Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter, Stephen K. Bannon, Breitbart media and their far right audience. A series of explicitly violent Alt-Right, militia and pro-Fascist events are also, again, being scheduled for Civic Center / MLK park in downtown Berkeley on those days.
Once more, signs point towards an escalated and uncontrollable confrontation both on and off campus during these four days. The history of these events has been chilling. Since Inauguration Day, Alt-Right followers have shot someone at the University of Washington, stabbed two people to death on public transport in Portland, stabbed to death a college senior in Maryland, beaten numerous nonviolent protesters at the University of Virginia, and most recently murdered a peaceful protester with an automobile in Charlottesville. Most immediately troubling, given Trump’s decision to end DACA, is that these forces have publicly expressed their intent to specifically target “sanctuary campuses” and disclose the identity of undocumented students. As concerned faculty members, we cannot remain silent while students, staff, colleagues, and fellow community members are threatened.
Therefore, as faculty committed to the safety of our students and our campus, we are calling for a complete boycott of all classes and campus activities while these Alt-Right events are taking place at the very center of UC Berkeley’s campus. As faculty we cannot ask students and staff to choose between risking their physical and mental safety in order to attend class or come to work in an environment of harassment, intimidation, violence, and militarized policing. The reality is that particularly vulnerable populations (DACA students, non-white, gender queer, Muslims, disabled, feminists, and others) have already been harmed, and are reporting increased levels of fear and anxiety about the upcoming events, the increased police presence on our campus, and how all this will impact their lives and their studies.
It is not just physical violence that our campus faces from this media circus. Many of these provocateurs’ most committed audiences are online, and the Breitbart media machine uses that audience to harass, cyberbully, and threaten anyone who speaks out against them. Students and faculty on our campus have already had their lives threatened for speaking out against Milo and his followers. Online threats are real threats, and if we allow this intolerant and bullying version of free speech to take over our campus, then it can only but come at the expense of the free speech rights of the Berkeley community as a whole. In fact, campus safety concerns have already forced the Anthropology Department to cancel a public talk during “free speech week.” This makes clear that the administration understands the imminent threat to campus safety while also revealing that the loud demands of the Alt-Right has the effect of silencing members of our campus community.
We recognize that as a public institution, we are legally bound by the Constitution to allow all viewpoints on campus. However, there are forms of speech that are not protected under the First Amendment. These include speech that presents imminent physical danger and speech that disrupts the university’s mission to educate. Milo, Coulter and Bannon do not come to educate; they and their followers come to humiliate and incite. If the administration insists upon allowing the Alt-Right to occupy the center of our campus for four days to harass, threaten and intimidate us, as they did during Milo’s visit in February, then faculty cannot teach, staff cannot work and students cannot learn.
We refuse to grant the Alt-Right the media spectacle that they so desperately desire. This strategy responds to the concerns voiced in the letter authored by the chairs of the three departments most impacted–Gender & Women’s Studies, African American Studies and Ethnic Studies – and also follows the lead of the SPLC advice to ignore these agitators. As faculty, we reject both the administration’s rhetoric of false equivalency that all speech – including “hate speech” – merits value and respect and also the impulse to see direct confrontation as the only strategy of resistance. A boycott of all campus activities during these days is the only responsible course of action.
Therefore we are calling upon faculty to take the following steps:
- Cancel classes and tell students to stay home. A boycott of classes affirms that our fundamental responsibility as faculty is to protect the safety and well being of all our students. While we understand the argument that canceling classes might be seen as a penalty to students who want to learn–by holding class when some students CAN NOT attend by virtue of their DACA status and the imminent threat that these campus events hold, faculty who DO hold classes are disadvantaging DACA students and others who will feel threatened by being on campus.
- Close buildings, close departments and let staff stay home. If the campus is unsafe for student learning then it is unsafe for staff members to work. We should work with campus maintenance and building managers to close as many departments and buildings as possible, starting with those in the immediate vicinity of Sproul Plaza. No one should be forced to work surrounded by men with clubs, police with guns and the sting of teargas.
- Faculty who decide to hold class during this week, in the face of these explicit threats, should not penalize students who are afraid to come to campus. It is unfair and discriminatory for faculty to schedule exams or require attendance during this week. Such an expectation forces students to choose between their physical safety, their mental well being, and a grade. Consider making a video lecture available, give the students a take-home assignment, or creating another alternative class plan. If you decide you must hold class, please do it away from campus, away from the Telegraph Avenue point of campus entry, and away from Downtown.
The Administration, in failing to halt these events, has left concerned faculty with no other choice than to act to prevent further harm to our community. We urge you to join us in keeping our students and our campus safe by signing on to this call for a campus-wide- boycott.
In Solidarity,
To add your name to this letter, follow this link and sign at the bottom.
Signed:
You may follow the link above for a LONG AND CHANGING LIST of educators.
Ben Shapiro Protest: A People’s Speakout Against White Supremacy, Misogyny, Xenophobia & Fascism
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Press Advisory 14 September 2017 Sunsara Taylor available for interviews Thursday September 14, 6pm Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley CampusAn outrageous cavalcade of fascist speakers is set to descend on the UC Berkeley campus: first up is former Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro, to be quickly followed by Milo Yiannopoulos’ “Free Speech Week” featuring fellow fascist provocateur, Ann Coulter and to be capped by an appearance by white supremacist and Neo-Nazi, former Trump Chief Strategist Steven Bannon. Chancellor Carol Christ has cynically proclaimed this a “Free Speech Year” and announced an unprecedented lockdown of campus buildings, a militarized, heavily policed “perimeter” with ID checkpoints on Thursday to protect and provide a platform to Shapiro’s “Say No to Campus Thuggery” speech while seeking to clampdown on protest, all in the name of “free Speech”. In opposition to this gross perversion of “free speech” and attempt to make UC Berkeley a police state, Refuse Fascism will host a People’s Speakout to take place simultaneous to Shapiro’s event. The widely circulated invitation to this speakout reads:NO, Ben Shapiro: The Problem is NOT “Campus Thuggery” A PEOPLE’S SPEAK OUT AGAINST WHITE SUPREMACY, MISOGYNY, Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley, Thursday, Sept. 14th, 6pm Sproul Plaza is where students, faculty, and all concerned people should be on September 14 when Ben Shapiro speaks at 7pm. Shapiro is coming to campus to spread ugly fascist views dressed up in slick-talking “intellectual” garb. Beneath his “reasonable” tone lies Shapiro’s real thuggery: Shapiro mocked Trayvon Martin on what would have been his 21st birthday, insists that being transgender is a “mental illness,” compares abortion to the Holocaust and thinks women should be forced to bear children against their will, argues that racial discrimination is not a “continuing factor in American life” and that poverty among Black people is not a result of racism but of Black culture, believes in a “clash of civilizations” and calls Islamic civilization “the polar opposite of the West,” wrote that “Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage,” and more. This is harmful! He, along with fascists of many stripes, have targeted Berkeley because reversing Berkeley’s radical history would be a major advance for the consolidation of fascism on campuses everywhere and throughout society. Fascists must NOT have an audience. DON’T GO. Or if you do go, WALK OUT when Shapiro starts to speak, and come to the Speak Out. No, Chancellor Christ, speech by fascists and those who intellectually defend them is not what humanity needs and will not contribute to campuses acting as centers of critical thought and debate. Fascism already has a platform – the biggest and most powerful platform in the world: the White House! Not only do Trump, Pence, Sessions, Kelly, and the rest of the Regime constantly put forward fascist ideas about Muslims, immigrants, women, LGBTQ, Black people, people around the world, and more… they are using the power of the state – and unleashing the extra-legal mob – to destroy countless lives and threaten humanity as a whole. What this moment in history requires is resistance to fascism, including discussion and debate over what fascism is, its roots, where it can lead, and what needs to be done to stop it. And, people – especially students – joining in the fight to drive the fascist Trump/Pence Regime from power! Stand up on Sept 14 and start getting organized for November 4th, when many thousands will take to the streets in cities and towns across the country, day after day and night after night, growing to millions and refusing to leave until our demand is met: This Nightmare Must End: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! Contact Refuse Fascism to endorse, to speak or perform, or bring your class or organization to participate. EVERYONE, from a diversity of perspectives, who refuses to accept a fascist America is invited! Sunsara Taylor is a writer for Revolution Newspaper and co-initiator of RefuseFascism.org who has sparred over years on Fox with Bill O’Reilly and other hosts, most recently with Tucker Carlson when she compared Trump to Hitler. RefuseFascism.org is a nationwide movement that unites people of many perspectives and from all walks of life who recognize that the Trump/Pence Regime is a fascist regime that must be driven from power through the mass political protest of millions of people. In the name of humanity. |
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Berkeley Vows to Protect Free Speech Rights
“The law is very clear: Public institutions like UC Berkeley must permit speakers invited in accordance with campus policies to speak, without discrimination in regard to point of view.”–UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ in a message to the campus community on August 23. 2017
Dear students, faculty and staff,
This fall, the issue of free speech will once more engage our community in powerful and complex ways. Events in Charlottesville, with their racism, bigotry, violence and mayhem, make the issue of free speech even more tense. The law is very clear: Public institutions like UC Berkeley must permit speakers invited in accordance with campus policies to speak, without discrimination in regard to point of view. The United States has the strongest free speech protections of any liberal democracy; the First Amendment protects even speech that most of us would find hateful, abhorrent and odious, and the courts have consistently upheld these protections.
Berkeley, as you know, is the home of the Free Speech Movement, where students on the right and students on the left united to fight for the right to advocate political views on campus. Particularly now, it is critical that the Berkeley community come together once again to protect this right. It is who we are.But the most powerful argument for free speech is not one of legal constraint — that we’re required to allow it — but of value. The public expression of many sharply divergent points of view is fundamental both to our democracy and to our mission as a university. The philosophical justification underlying free speech, most powerfully articulated by John Stuart Mill in his book On Liberty, rests on two basic assumptions. The first is that truth is of such power that it will always ultimately prevail; any abridgement of argument therefore compromises the opportunity of exchanging error for truth. The second is an extreme skepticism about the right of any authority to determine which opinions are noxious or abhorrent. Once you embark on the path to censorship, you make your own speech vulnerable to it.
Nonetheless, defending the right of free speech for those whose ideas we find offensive is not easy. It often conflicts with the values we hold as a community — tolerance, inclusion, reason and diversity. Some constitutionally protected speech attacks the very identity of particular groups of individuals in ways that are deeply hurtful. However, the right response is not the heckler’s veto, or what some call platform denial. Call toxic speech out for what it is, don’t shout it down, for in shouting it down, you collude in the narrative that universities are not open to all speech. Respond to hate speech with more speech.
We all desire safe space, where we can be ourselves and find support for our identities. You have the right at Berkeley to expect the university to keep you physically safe. But we would be providing students with a less valuable education, preparing them less well for the world after graduation, if we tried to shelter them from ideas that many find wrong, even dangerous. We must show that we can choose what to listen to, that we can cultivate our own arguments and that we can develop inner resilience, which is the surest form of safe space. These are not easy tasks, and we will offer support services for those who desire them.
This September, Ben Shapiro and Milo Yiannopoulos have both been invited by student groups to speak at Berkeley. The university has the responsibility to provide safety and security for its community and guests, and we will invest the necessary resources to achieve that goal. If you choose to protest, do so peacefully. That is your right, and we will defend it with vigor. We will not tolerate violence, and we will hold anyone accountable who engages in it.
We will have many opportunities this year to come together as a Berkeley community over the issue of free speech; it will be a free speech year. We have already planned a student panel, a faculty panel and several book talks. Bridge USA and the Center for New Media will hold a day-long conference on Oct. 5; PEN, the international writers’ organization, will hold a free speech convening in Berkeley on Oct. 23. We are planning a series in which people with sharply divergent points of view will meet for a moderated discussion. Free speech is our legacy, and we have the power once more to shape this narrative.
Sincerely,
Carol Christ
Chancellor
Richard Dawkins on free speech and Islam(ism)
Author: Nano GoleSorkh
Richard Dawkins discusses the conflict between freedom of speech and Islam(ism), and challenges the reasons why he was recently de-platformed by a KPFA radio station in Berkely, California.
Excerpt from the Blasphemy, Islamophobia, Free Expression Panel at the International Conference on Free Expression and Conscience, London, 22-24 July 2017. Full length panel discussion:
https://youtu.be/seJkIGV8urc
By Nano GoleSorkh (Blasphemy, Islamophobia, Free Expression Panel) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
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Open Letter from Richard Dawkins
Dear KPFA,
I used to love your station when I lived in Berkeley for two years, shortly after that beloved place had become the iconic home of free speech. I listened to KPFA almost every day during those years, and I regularly contributed to your fundraising drives, grateful for your objective reporting and humane commentary while I participated in the People’s Park and Vietnam war demonstrations. It was therefore a matter of personal sorrow to me to receive this morning your truly astonishing “justification” for de-platforming me.
My memory of KPFA is that you were unusually scrupulous about fact-checking. I especially admired your habit of always quoting sources. You conspicuously did not quote a source when accusing me of “abusive speech”. Why didn’t you check your facts – or at least have the common courtesy to alert me – before summarily cancelling my event? If you had consulted me, or if you had done even rudimentary fact-checking, you would have concluded that I have never used abusive speech against Islam. I have called IslamISM “vile” but surely you, of all people, understand that Islamism is not the same as Islam. I have criticised the ridiculous pseudoscientific claims made by Islamic apologists (“the sun sets in a marsh” etc), and the opposition of Islamic “ scholars” to evolution and other scientific truths. I have criticised the appalling misogyny and homophobia of Islam, I have criticised the murdering of apostates for no crime other than their disbelief. Far from attacking Muslims, I understand – as perhaps you do not – that Muslims themselves are the prime victims of the oppressive cruelties of Islamism, especially Muslim women.
I am known as a frequent critic of Christianity and have never been de-platformed for that. Why do you give Islam a free pass? Why is it fine to criticise Christianity but not Islam?
You say I use “abusive speech” about Islam. I would seriously – I mean it – like to hear what examples of my “abusive speech” you had in mind. When you fail to discover any, I presume you will issue a public apology, which I will of course accept in a spirit of gratitude for what KPFA once was. And could become again.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Dawkins
Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read, Sept. 24 – 30, 2017
By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted with removal or restrictions in libraries and schools. While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available.
This happens only thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read. Banned Books Week highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.