So in the aftermath of the Brown University student shout- and heckle-down of NYC police commissioner Ray Kelly’s lecture at the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions, Brown president Christina Paxon held “an open forum addressing issues surrounding free speech and race on campus,” reports the Brown Daily Herald. Read the story, which brims with all the idiocy, all the political correctness, all the drama-queenification you could imagine of a collection of self-grandiose liberal academics and pampered, petulant Ivy League victim wanna-be morality-monopolizers.
But let me give you a highlight or five.
The apology by Marion Orr, the Taubman Center’s director (the dude who actually invited Kelly!): “I sincerely apologize to my students . . . especially to my black students and Latino brothers and sisters — it wasn’t my intention to hurt you, and it hurts me to hear that my decision caused so much pain.”
Hurts me to hear you’re hurt by the hurt, Marion. Then there’s Jenny Li, a student leader of the protest (who “invited attendees to recite the group’s chant with her in a call-and-response format” during Kelly’s talk): “Asking tough questions is not enough. . . . Brown is complicit. We stand in solidarity with the Providence anti-racism movement, and all those impacted by racial profiling.”
Her sidekick, senior Josette Souza: “Ray Kelly is a terrorist, and he’s terrorizing our communities. . . . Until you feel terrorism in your life, I don’t think you have the right to speak on this subject.”
Hothouse flower Justice Gaines, sophomore: “For me, protesting Ray Kelly and shutting down his speech had nothing to do with ideas . . . It had to do with the safety of my body on this campus.”
Let’s end with freshman Ruby Fore: “To those of you who don’t understand the emotion, what sort of invasion of your privacy or denial or patronizing and marginalization of your personhood could make your voice shake the way that mine is shaking right now?”
Mine too, Ruby.