On ‘Radio Times’: Free speech on college campuses
Middlebury College students turn their backs to Charles Murray, unseen, during his lecture in Middlebury, Vt., Thursday, March 2, 2017. Hundreds of college students protested his lecture, forcing the college to move his talk to an undisclosed campus location from which it was live-streamed to the original venue. He still could not be heard above protesters' chants, feet stamping and occasional smoke alarms. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke)
A protest at Middlebury College in Vermont earlier this month reignited the national debate about free speech on America’s college campuses.
Students there engaged in a protest of a scheduled speech by Charles Murray, author of “The Bell Curve,” which has been accused of being a racist text. Their tactics led to a cancellation of the event — and a concussion for the Democratic moderator.
On Monday’s “Radio Times,” Mary Cummings-Jordan spoke to Samantha Harris of the free speech advocacy group F.I.R.E., and Jason Stanley, who teaches philosophy at Yale. When discussing their perspective on the free exchange of ideas, Harris stated that her goal is to foster “engaging open-mindedly with people of different viewpoints.” Stanley responded by saying sometimes “people are engaging with people who think that they are inferior.”
The panel also discussed the violent reaction that provocateur Milo Yiannopoulous incited at various campuses this year, and the line between free speech and hate speech.
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