(Image: Facebook/Screenshot)
Update (4:42 PM EST 2/25): Young Americans for Freedom at CSULA is reporting that the decision to not let Ben Shapiro speak has been reversed. They also report that there is a large contigent of the Black Lives Matter movement protesting the event.
Original Story:
Radical liberal activism is at it again!
Conservative speaker/columnist/editor Ben Shapiro was to speak at California State University at Los Angeles (CSULA) before the president of the university, William Covino - who has communist ties and allowed a known domestic terrorist to speak - canceled the event over concerns about inclusivity. Shapiro was to give a lecture to the CSULA Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016.
Covino sent an email to YAF, stating, “After careful consideration, I have decided that it will be best for our campus community if we reschedule Ben Shapiro’s appearance for a later date, so that we can arrange for him to appear as part of a group of speakers with differing viewpoints on diversity.”
Shapiro is not taking the “rescheduling” lying down. Shapiro still plans on doing the lecture for the students that YAF and students that want to hear what he has to say.
In a statement, Shapiro told the YAF:
This is what the climate of campus fascism has wrought: jackbooted students who believe they can strong-arm the administration into shutting down dissent, and an administration willing to shut down that dissent to kowtow to these precious snowflakes. The campus left are not just cowards, they’re totalitarians. We’re not going to stand for it.
Covino has a history of radical thought and activism, and has no problem accepting college donations from alumni who are known radical leftists.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Covino accepted a hefty donation from former communist activists Charon D'Aiello Sandoval and David Sandoval. Shortly thereafter, the Charon D'Aiello Sandoval and David Sandoval Student Services Center at CSULA was opened.
The Times reported:
D'Aiello Sandoval joined La Raza Unida, a Chicano political party, and was a member of the Young Workers Liberation League, an arm of the Communist Party. Sandoval was a Brown Beret, who traveled to the former Soviet Union and Cuba.
Covino’s radical liberal bias does not end there.
When Covino was a provost at Fresno State in 2010, he allowed Bill Ayers, the former leader of Weather Underground who also bombed the Pentagon in 1972, to speak to students.
While there is nothing wrong with having different speakers from different points on the spectrum speak, why then was Shapiro not allowed to speak by himself at CSULA?
In the email to YAF, Covino said that Shapiro would be better served speaking in a group because “such an event will better represent our university’s dedication to the free exchange of ideas and the value of considering multiple viewpoints.”
Then why did Covino allow the following radical left speakers to speak on their own without opposition?
- Dr. Cornel West: political activist, race-baiter, and the man who said President Obama was not progressive enough.
- Alia al-Saji: Muslim activist and Feminist.
- Kimberlé Crenshaw: Civil Rights professor and regular commentator on NPR’s The Tavis Smiley Show.
- Serene Khader: professor specializing in global justice, feminist theory, who lectured on the topic, “Do Muslim women really need freedom?”
- Angela Davis and Tim Wise (spoke together): Davis was a leader of the Communist Party USA, with close ties to Black Panther Party. Wise, who is a white man, teaches teachers and institutions how to “dismantle white racism.”
In response to Covino's decision not to allow Shapiro to lecture alone, YAF said the event will still take place on Thursday, Feb. 25 - "without the university's approval" - and threatened legal action if the school prevents Shapiro's appearance:
In recognition of the school’s dire need for ideological diversity, Young America’s Foundation and CSULA YAF, in cooperation with Ben Shapiro, fully intend to hold the event, which is part of YAF’s Fred R. Allen Lecture Series, without the university’s approval. The Foundation is prepared to take legal action if the school fails to recognize these students’ rights.