Social justice activists at California State University, Los Angeles are planning a counter rally to protest a planned talk by conservative author and Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro this Thursday. The rally was in part a response to a call to action by CSULA’s Melina Abdullah, a Pan-African Studies professor and vocal Black Lives Matter supporter who gained some notoriety after calling to #AbolishThePolice. In response, one activist threatened to physically harm Shapiro.
Shapiro’s Feb. 25 Young Americans for Freedom-hosted talk on “When Diversity Becomes A Problem” has inspired the predictable outrage from the “safe space” student activists, but it’s the faculty that have truly escalated the situation. When the speech was first announced, CSULA Professor Robert Weide threatened supporters of the event and has since vowed to “macro-agress” in response.
As YAF’s Lauren McCue highlights, now Professor Abdullah is calling for anti-conservative activists on campus to do something about the student org-sponsored speech:
“Abdullah is also spreading fabricated rumors that conservatives are threatening to bring guns to the event,” reports McCue. “Despite multiple claims of such threats, CSULA YAF and Young America’s Foundation have been unable to uncover any evidence.”
McCue also underscores one particularly disturbing comment under Abdullah’s post which clearly threatened Shapiro physically: “[he] won’t be talking or lookin so nice no more.” Other “tolerant” social justice activists expressed hope that Shapiro’s talk would be “shut down.”
In the official announcement of the “Unity Power to the People Rally,” intended to express the activists’ outrage with the “racist shit” that Shapiro will supposedly say, one of the organizers accuses Shapiro of arguing that “the language of social justice is problematic because it overrides the freedom of those who want to promote racist, classist, misogynist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, ageist, sizeist, neocolonial, neoliberal, and oppressive ideologies.” Yes, that’s an actual quote; here’s proof:
