Word: speech
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...disingenuous of Muhammad Kenyatta and BLSA to label the PLO representative's talk "a private teach-in on the Palestinian issue." For, as I and Prof. Patterson argued in our letter, at Harvard or any other university the norms of fairness and free speech mandate that a "teach-in" be an inclusive event, not an exclusive...
...Suppose that a hypothetical Harvard Anti-Abortion Association and a Harvard Pro-Sexism Club invited Phyllis Schlafly to a "private teach-in on pro-sexism". Would the norms of fairness and free speech be violated? You bet they would, and the Harvard feminist groups would, view them as having been violated (and rightly so). Or suppose a not so hypothetical Harvard Conservative Club and the editors of the Harvard Salient invited the Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan to a "private teach-in on states rights". Would the norms of fairness and free speech be violated? You bet they...
Members of BLSA should have gotten their arguments together better before committing them to paper, because they can't have it both ways--a "private teach-in" that includes outside observers, but conduct the event in an exclusive, anti-free speech and anti-fairness manner. Indeed, the teach-in's moderator, Muhammad Kenyatta, implicity understood this gaping contradiction--albeit a bit late in the day--for he sought to circumvent it by ignoring the request of Prof. Alan Dershowitz and members of HJLSA for an explanation of how the moderator would handle a discussion period...
...lesson to be drawn from this shameful assault on free speech and fairness is that these fragile norms must always be treated sensitively and vigilantly defended. Blacks, Jews, Palestinians, and other victims of oppression must recognize their special stake in vigilant defense of fairness and free speech. That some Black students at Harvard Law School fail to recognize this is, as I and Prof. Patterson emphasized in our letter, tragic indeed...
...Finally, the BLSA's account of the vulgar disruption by some Jewish students at last year's talk is mistaken in one crucial respect. They state that "Neither the Dean nor other members of the faculty spoke out against this disruption and violation of free speech". I know that Muhammad Kenyatta knows this account is in error, for he has commented favorably to me about a letter I published in the Crimson strongly criticizing this disruption, and I supported the BLSA's concern for presenting Palestinian issue at Harvard. Prof. Dershowitz also criticized the HJLSA's disruption...