Ben Shapiro, an American conservative speaker, gave a speech this month at the University of California, Berkeley, amid protests and extensive security arrangements due to threats by far-left groups. But the fight is not always between the left and the right
A ‘racist’ course
At Reed, a liberal arts college in Oregon, US, students even protested during the first class of their college life in 2016. After some said the course was “Eurocentric,” the lecture was cancelled, according to The Economist. Reed College students were ranked as the most liberal and the second most studious in a Princeton Review survey of top colleges. The protesters argue the humanities course is racist as it ignores many of the world’s greatest civilisations and because the authors are mostly white men, the piece adds
Terror tactics
Another teacher at the same college, Assistant Professor Lucia Martinez, a gay, mixed-race woman, said she felt “intimidated” by the militant leftists. “I am scared to teach courses on race, gender, or sexuality … many of these students don’t believe in either historicity or objective facts. (They denounce the latter as being a tool of the white cisheteropatriarchy)”
Enter the genderfluid
Kimberly Pierce, the genderfluid (a person who does not identify themselves as having a fixed gender) director of the groundbreaking film Boys Don’t Cry, had visited the college to talk about his/her film. The movie was based on the real-life murder of transgender Brandon Teena. But protesters were angry as Pierce chose a non-trans actor to play the role of Teena. They held posters that read “f*** your transphobia” and “f*** this cis white bitch”