RIDGELAND — Much has been written and said lately concerning the fate of free speech on college campuses. Middlebury in Connecticut and Evergreen in Washington State are but two colleges that have become symbols of student intolerance toward ideas with which they disagree.
Some critics of what is deemed a leftist orientation on campus charge that the shouting and confrontational students at the aforementioned institutions are reminiscent of the young boys in the classic novel “Lord of the Flies.” Although there are some similarities, particularly given the rise of a mob mentality and violence, the analogy fails on a key point.
The difference between the behavior of the children in the novel and that of the actual young adults on campuses has to do with whether any level of supervision by responsible parties exists. In “Lord of the Flies,” only children survive the plane crash and are left alone on a deserted island. Some of them are quite young. Their descent into feral behavior can at least partially be understood.
In contrast, the destructive activities of students on college campuses takes place in the presence of faculty who fail to exercise whatever authority they have to counsel against such behavior. Indeed, some are willing participants in the resulting turmoil. Who can forget the picture of a communications professor at the University of Missouri two years ago threatening a student journalist?
In the case of Evergreen College, Bret Weinstein had his class disrupted by students who called him a racist and demanded his resignation. His offense was to have disagreed with a request by minority students and faculty that all white persons should vacate the campus for a day so that people of color could discuss how unwelcome they feel there following Trump’s election. Rather than come to the defense of Professor Weinstein, many of his colleagues wrote a letter demanding an investigation because he told his story on Fox News.
When I was still a teenager, older people with whom I worked told me that a man will walk straight into hell with his eyes wide open. That is true, but I have discovered over the years that someone told that man where to walk and gave him a compelling reason for doing so. Telling students that all disagreeable viewpoints are automatically oppressive causes them to revert to herd mentalities and quash all debate. On a personal level the students lose any sense of individual agency. They only know and speak “groupthink.” On a larger level, democracy becomes endangered.
I am not speaking here against dissent. Quite the contrary, free speech is the very foundation of dissent, and it is free speech that I defend. Students should voice their disagreements but should do so legitimately and with respect.
One last thing about Professor Weinstein. When he was a student at the University of Pennsylvania in 1987, he protested a degrading and humiliating incident involving African-American female strippers during a fraternity rush. He took offense when the young men screamed racial slurs at the women during their performances. As a result of this stand, Weinstein was harassed and threatened by fraternities on the campus.
Maybe some of the students and faculty who are now calling him a racist and seeing themselves as social justice warriors should take a fresh look at Professor Weinstein and his beliefs. Maybe they will recognize someone who really believes in and fights for social justice.
• Vincent Venturini is the retired associate provost at Mississippi Valley State University. Currently he is a part-time visiting professor of social work.
