In a stunning display of hypocrisy, the University of Minnesota, which denied there was an appropriate venue on its main campus for Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro to speak on February 26, has found a place on the main campus for a counter event held by the U of M’s Women’s Center and several leftist organizations on campus.
Despite the fact that Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew, was the number one-target online of the white nationalist alt-right in 2016, the leftists are titling their event, “White Supremacy in the Age of Trump: An Anti-Racist Teach-In.”
The leftist event will take place in Humphrey Forum, in the middle of the school’s main Minneapolis campus. Other venues on the main campus were denied to Young America’s Foundation (YAF) for Shapiro’s event, forcing it to be held off-campus.
The leftist event, desperate to limn Shapiro as a racist, accuses Shapiro of espousing “#FakeNews conservatism” while insisting:
A conservative political commentator whose racist indifference toward the pain and suffering of Black and Brown people is well-documented, Mr. Shapiro has been invited by the Young America’s Foundation to spread his divisive views in a campus-wide lecture on February 26th. Join a multi-racial coalition of UMN students, faculty, and staff as we reaffirm the importance of racial justice to American democracy.
As YAF spokesman Spencer Brown, who originally came from Minnesota, writes of the leftists, “Their event also refers to a Washington Post report that ‘white extremists plan to focus their 2018 outreach and recruitment efforts on Midwestern colleges and universities like the University of Minnesota,’ falling into the same trap of leftists at UC Berkeley and other schools around the country who will make up literally unbelievable claims about Shapiro in attempts to shut down his events.”
Brown notes that Shapiro always gives those who disagree with him priority when the Q&A following his speeches begins, encouraging a dialogue with others. He adds, “If leftists – in the student body and administration – at the University of Minnesota truly believed in the merit of their ideas, they wouldn’t need to push Ben Shapiro and conservative students miles away while hosting an echo-chamber event in the middle of campus to feel safe in their flawed ideologies.”
The leftist event is sponsored by the University’s Women’s Center; the Humphrey Students of Color Association; Gender, Sex, and Policy Event Committee; Association of Multicultural Scientists; Public Affairs Student Association; Noel Gordon Jr.; and Emma Chi Olson.