COLUMN: Free speech isn’t under attack on campuses

When I proposed the idea of a column based on freedoms at universities, my editor and I both felt that we were taking a risk on finding enough material to run a biweekly column. However, it appears that freedom of speech has become a rather fashionable topic in media narratives concerning college campuses in America. From a CNN opinion piece back in March regarding the expulsion of University of Oklahoma fraternity members caught singing racist chants on video, to the coddled co-eds narrative so carefully crafted by The Atlantic, and the discourse that followed, to, most recently, another piece published by The Atlantic, “The Anti-Free Speech Movement at UCLA,” mainstream media outlets have begun to lament the tragic death of free speech at the hand of liberal students on college campuses across the nation.

That free speech is under attack on college campuses is an idea perpetuated without regard to the context of the subject and the power dynamics that require the protection of liberties in the first place. For actual students on college campuses, these instances in which their voices take on a new dimension of power are small but hard-fought victories.

Let’s return to the most recent instance at UCLA. On Oct. 6, the UCLA chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon hosted a “Kanye Western” themed party for which many dressed in some variation of a Kanye West or Kim Kardashian costume. Many students, largely organized by the Black Bruins (Afrikan Student Union), protested this dress code as a blatant appropriation of black culture that perpetuates harmful stereotypes. In response, university administration suspended social activities for the greek organizations that co-hosted the events. In the article published by The Atlantic, this suspension is viewed as evidence of an egregious transgression of free speech, the edge of the slippery slope down on which all civil liberties have begun to slide in higher education institutions across America.

In other words, the social calendar of a fraternity and a sorority is apparently more crucial to civil liberties at a university than the voices of its underrepresented black students. The university’s response to the widespread protests of its students, from whom it charges roughly $13,000 a year each for tuition and fees, is somehow a threat to First Amendment rights everywhere. When we act like freedom of speech is under attack because greek organizations are put on social probation for hosting events with racist overtones, we completely lose sight of the true beauty and power of free speech as a protected liberty.

Perhaps the most confounding aspect of The Atlantic’s “Anti-Free Speech Movement at UCLA” piece is author Conor Friedersdorf’s suggestion that the student protests stem from a naive ignorance of the activist legacy that shaped their campus. He writes, “A half-century ago, student activists at the University of California clashed with administrators during the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, a series of events that would greatly expand free-speech rights of people at public colleges and universities.” Friedersdorf refers to the protests against the Kanye Western party as “UC student activists [squandering] their inheritance.”

Apparently unbeknownst to Friedersdorf, another very important chapter of UC student activism a half-century ago, especially at UCLA, was the foundation of groups such as the Afrikan Student Union itself. One visit to the Black Bruins’ webpage would have informed him about the union’s foundation in 1966, influenced by the ideology of the influential UCLA Black Panther Party — UCLA student Bunchy Carter would later go on to found the Southern California chapter of the Black Panthers — and its legacy of advocacy projects to combat “the low admissions rates of Afrikan students at UCLA while continuing to advance the rights and overall quality of life for all students.”

It is probably safe to say that the student activists in question did not forget this legacy.

In fact, war-on-free-speech rhetoric often relies on the idea that students these days have no idea what is at stake for themselves — that their activism comes out of nowhere and is not connected to a historic struggle. But the contemporary fight against microaggressions carries the weight of a long history of marginalized student groups trying to improve campus environment for students in the future. This struggle is just as important as — and in fact deeply intertwined with — the protection of civil liberties. After all, there is no point in protecting students’ right to free speech and to freedom of assembly only to hinder any real results of their activism.

Kristen Woodruff is a senior majoring in classics. Her column, “Old School, New Tricks,” runs  every other Wednesday.