There is a difference between freedom of speech and hate speech and YAF has crossed the line. Last year they sponsored a transphobic speaker who spoke false claims about transgender individuals and transgender people in sports that promoted and sparked transphobia on campus.  

This year, they sponsored a speaker that claimed White Privilege is a myth invented by supposed rich black liberals that use said myth to coerce people into submission behind the scenes. 

The speaker said, quote, “slavery is a choice” and advocated for violence against his political rivals, threatening to shoot people who cross him with his 38. He also launched a gory narrative about hanging liberals and tearing out their entrails until they die and rolling their heads through the streets, and also said that the only way to promote change is through violence, and that peacemakers such as Martin Luther King Jr are liars and that dialogue has no place in politics. 

The speaker was disrespectful to students that offered views against their own, responding to questions with name calling, calling a student “crazy” and another a “coward.” He responded to every alternative viewpoint with yelling and brash commentary intended to put them down, and cut off dissent offered their opinions. 

If you can’t encourage dialogue and listen to reason, don’t speak. 

Encouraging violence against political opposition, especially when your opposition are human rights activists, is uncalled for and has no place on this campus. Spreading political lies and misinformation about the message of calling out white privilege is also a direct attack on human rights. White privilege is not to oppress white people, put black people down, or a lie spewed by liberal media. Talking about white privilege is meant to inform people about the mistakes and injustice in our system and in our past, and shutting down that dialogue is disrespectful to those that are and were impacted by racial injustice and systemic injustice in the United States. It is hate speech. 

YAF and their speakers have continually fostered violence and hatred within our community, and their speakers need to be better vetted and willing to be respectful of all people no matter their views or race. We also must call for a formal apology from YAF for the violence they propagated.