Clemson Students Demand Zero-Tolerance Of Free Speech

by JASmius



Remember half a century ago when there were actually such things as "Campus Free Speech" movements?  Good times, good times:

A group of Clemson students are demanding that the university "prosecute defamatory speech" to help correct a "pattern of social injustice" at the school.

Sorry, guys, but if Clemson takes any federal money, then that is, constitutionally speaking, a no-can-do, even if it wasn't under the South Carolina State constitution (which it is).

As part of an on-campus campaign known as See the Stripes....

Supposed to depict a tiger's stripes, as that's Clemson's mascot.  Though for some reason I keep seeing striped arm bands....

....“underrepresented” groups have created a list of grievances and demands following a Clemson fraternity’s “ Crip-mas” themed party in December.

Over-represented, they mean.  Couldn't they just have held a counter-party with a "Cracker-mas" theme?  I could respect that a lot more than the usual authoritarian whining.

“The First Amendment unconditionally protects freedom of speech,” said William Turton, chairman of Clemson’s Young Americans for Freedom, told Campus Reform. “This fundamental American value is non-negotiable. All speech, even speech that is considered offensive and hateful, is protected. I may disagree with such speech, but it should not be silenced.”

Or as Thomas Jefferson once put it in a letter to William Roscoe, "[T]his institution [The University of Virginia, which Jefferson founded] will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. for here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.

More speech, in other words, not less.

See the Stripes is also calling on the university to rename buildings that are “offensively named.”

Oh, there'll be nothing self-servingly politically correct here, will there?

Specifically, protesters point to Tillman Hall, named after Benjamin Ryan Tillman, who led the Red Shirts in South Carolina’s 1876 election. The Red Shirts sought to reduce the black vote in the state election.

“The main takeaway here is that I feel terrible if the minorities at Clemson feel undermined or disrespected in the shadow of Tillman as they cross campus every day....

Whereas I wouldn't, seeing as how that was almost a century and a half ago and has absolutely and utterly nothing to do with any of them.  Really, if their self-esteem is that fantasistly thin-skinned, they should seek psychiatric help.

....but it wasn’t named Tillman Hall because we’re proud he was racist,” Nick Jewell, a Clemson alumnus, told Campus Reform. “It was named Tillman Hall simply because he got there first and donated a ton of money to the advancement of kids’ futures here at Clemson. We don’t stand beside everything he believed in by any means. And because of that, the name Tillman means nothing more to the majority than bells, bowman, and cherished memories with friends.” [emphasis added]

History is always messier and more gray-shaded than "activists" of any, well, "stripe" want to give it credit for.  But, just as with Duke University's Muslim contingent, if Seeing Stripes doesn't want to wind up seeing stars, let them raise the funds necessary to get Tillman Hall torn down and "Michael Brown" Hall or "Eric Garner" Hall erected in its place.  I mean, it's not as if George Soros wouldn't be willing to foot the bill for it.

Exit quote from President 1: