After violent student protests at Middlebury College forced the school to shut down American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray’s scheduled talk, and put a professor in a neck brace in the process, the chair of Middlebury’s political science department has issued an apology--for the “real pain” caused by inviting Murray.
In a piece in the student newspaper The Middlebury Campus, political science department chair Bert Johnson wrote that it was a “mistake” to offer a “symbolic department co-sponsorship” for Murray’s talk “without wider consultation,” which he has admittedly done with other events in the past.
“The short amount of time between when the event became public and when it occurred gave all of us scant opportunity to listen to and understand alternative points of view,” Johnson wrote. “Most importantly, and to my deep regret, it contributed to a feeling of voicelessness that many already experience on this campus, and it contributed to the very real pain that many people – particularly people of color – have felt as a result of this event.”
The “voicelessness” that Johnson claims students experienced by Murray’s talk happens to include people screaming, chanting, and shouting down Murray.
While Johnson asserts students felt “real pain” by the mere existence of a different opinion campus, the actual, real, physical pain was inflicted by the protesters. Protesters assaulted openly liberal and Democratic professor Allison Stanger for daring to be open to the free exchange of ideas, even with people you disagree with. Stranger claims she “feared for [her] life” as the allegedly voiceless mob attacked her.
In fact, more than 70 of the allegedly voiceless and pained protesters are even facing disciplinary action for using violence to try to shut down speech they don’t like.
Contrary to the popular adage on political protests signs that claim “silence is violence,” it appears that even actual violence is considered silence or “voicelessness.”
While defending his piece on Twitter, Johnson said, “BUT advanced notice & a more open process is polite. It shows respect for others who may be affected and want to contribute & respond” and added that it was a “courtesy” that he violated.
Apparently, giving protesters more time to think up ways to violently attack professors is an enshrined “polite” “courtesy” that needs to be afforded.
Johnson's piece notes, going forward, the school has now created a bureaucratic agency--a “college-wide committee on invited speakers”--to vet and reject speakers from campus who presumably make people feel “voiceless,” even if they also are afforded the right to freedom of speech.
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