There are limits to free speech. There are limits to free expression. There is a point where one person bravely stating their beliefs can become an open threat, and form of harassment to others. One person’s symbol of pride is another person’s symbol of offense. For some any opinion is as good or better than any verifiable fact. Their perceptions shapes their reality meanwhile other who fight hard against these distorted opinions until the conflicts escalates all out of proportion and all parties end up traumatized and wounded by the experience.
This appears to be part of what recently occurred at Transylvania University over the past year or so and school alumni and current Buzzfeed author Tracy Clayton describes discovering that her online stalker Mitchell Adkins committed a violent machete attack on campus because — he claims — Liberals made him do it.
Mitchell W. Adkins, of Cincinnati, claimed that he was unwelcome at TU as a conservative Trump supporter, but Clayton wrote extensively about the racism she experienced on the campus.
“Every day I was reminded just how unwelcome I was there,” she explained.
One floor of the school’s dorms held the fraternity Kappa Alpha Order. She noted that the way to spot the floor was every window held a Confederate flag.
“Those flags never let me forget that I was not wanted at any point in history, not then and not now, not in my temporary home, the place where I slept, the place my mother was spending her hard-earned money to send me,” Clayton said.
Both persons argue that they were the “victim” of the offensive behavior and views of others, but only one of these persons ultimately resorted to life-threatening violence.
In her article Tracy explained that when she attended the University she — as an African American — was in the extreme minority.
When I enrolled at Transylvania in 2000, there were about 1,100 students, and about 20 of them were black — which, as I understand it, was a school record (Transylvania was founded in 1780). A quick Google image search of the school name yields acres and acres of smiling white faces, except for the occasional basketball player.
Yet it was more than simply being in the minority that concerned Ms. Clayton about the school.
Here’s why there was a Confederate flag in each of those windows on the second floor in Davis Hall. The school, being as small as it was, had Greek organizations, but rather than having separate Greek housing, they had Greek floors in the dorms where all members lived. The floor with the Confederate flags in the windows was inhabited by the men of Kappa Alpha Order, known as the KAs. Every black person on campus (and those who were attuned to racial insensitivity) knew to stay away from the KAs. They were the good ol’ Southern boys, and the organization itself was founded on loaded terms like “chivalry,” "modern knighthood" (gee, why does that sound familiar?), and the “ideal Christian gentleman." They list Confederate commander Robert E. Lee as their “spiritual founder,” which still doesn’t really make much sense to me, and though it wasn’t their official emblem, they were very, very fond of the Confederate flag. Those windows and the flags in them belonged to the KAs.
When I saw the row of flags in the building I instantly told my mother that I wanted to go back home. She told me, of course, that wasn’t an option, and so I dealt with it as best I could. I went to class, tried to be open and sociable, and vented to my handful of black friends when we were alone.
...
Growing up in the hood, you assume that living where white folks live means safer streets and unlocked doors. But I never feared for my safety more than I did at Transylvania University. Those flags were often the first things I saw in the morning and the last things I saw at night, smugly watching me scurry to class, snickering, mocking. Well, I do declare! Look at that uppity coon, making like she belongs here, like she’s one of us. This is what happens when you teach ‘em to read. Hope that nigger makes it home before the sun goes down.
Black students on campus complained and eventually were able to have the flags removed from the windows. The frat members complained that the flags didn’t represent “Hate” and instead were about “Heritage” they in turn argued that it was about “Southern Pride” and not “Slavery.” But although the flags were gone from the windows, they were still displayed inside the rooms of the frat members which Clayton discovered when she and two friends attended a frat party to “check it out” and were briefly on the same floor as KAs. They were verbally insulted, or shunned, but there was plenty of tension in the air. Clayton wrote about what she imagined they were thinking with their unbroken stares.
I remember the stares, people silently but obviously wondering why we were there. In a sea of skinny white girls and burly blond boys, three thick black women definitely stuck out like flies in buttermilk. I was instantly uncomfortable — the flags had been removed from the windows, out of public view, but many of the KA brothers still had their flags displayed in their rooms. The flags seemed oddly glad to see me and the fear on my face. You scared, nigger? You should be scared. Somebody oughta put you in your place. Maybe tonight.
Is that what they were thinking? Perhaps they were thinking, specifically what Mitchell Adkins thought when he himself wrote about his own feelings of estrangement at Transy.
Earlier this year, the media became flooded with an article from an African-American student from Transylvania University who talked about how she faced discrimination on a daily basis due to her race. She mainly referenced the Fraternity Kappa Alpha for their representation on southern pride (this all happened in the early 2000's when people were still proud to display a confederate flag). Since the early 2000's, Transylvania has implemented many new policies to help diversify their student population in hopes that they would be seen as a safe school that stood up for equality for everyone. I'm here to say, that they've failed.
…
As a liberal arts college, Transy gets people in from all around the country, including many from different countries. Sweet, I get a fresh new start with fresh new people. I get to make my reputation however I'd like it. But within a week, I had already made several enemies with a single fact; I am a proud Republican. It's amazing to me that when I listen to someone's political opinion and then give my own, I'm the one who's lashed out at for being a "racist" or "bigot", some even go as far as saying "bane of society" or "fascist Nazi". When it came out that I wasn't a whole fan of the whole gay marriage Supreme Court ruling or that my ideas of a former Bruce Jenner were that he was in no way whatsoever brave or respectable, that's when things started to get out of hand. I lost friends left and right. People even went out of their way to not talk to me, to make me a social Pariah because I had different beliefs.
I could withstand people not liking me due to my beliefs, as that was most of high school for me (hence wanting a new start). I honestly don't care if people dislike me for my beliefs, because at least I stand up for myself. I disagree with the lifestyles chosen by many people of this school. What confuses me, though, is the discrimination I'm faced with directly from those against discriminating.
Adkins goes on to describe how shocked he was that after guidelines were put out about “inappropriate” Halloween costumes were published which urged against “racially, ethnically, or culturally offensive costumes while representing their organizations", but then someone appeared in drag with a gay pride flag which he found quite offensive personally, and yet..
I know for a fact that if I walked around wearing a Confederate flag (also known as southern pride flag), I would've faced so much backlash that it would've resulted in some serious punishment for me.
And there’s a reason for that. A very good reason. one that led to 360,000 casualties for the Union Army and 258,000 for the Confederates (even though our current President seems fairly unaware of this). That flag was used by the Klan as they waged terror and murdered against another 4,000 Americas for nearly a century. It was flown by the segregationists who murdered Emmet Till, Medger Evers and the Freedom Riders, who opposed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act.
I don’t think the Gay Pride Flag has done anything close to the same, or ever will. I understand that some who disagree with the divisiveness others assign to these symbols and have their own feelings about it.
So that as a result I don’t discount Adkin’s point. I’m certain he felt offended. I’m certain he felt oppressed as a lonely Trump supporting conservative in a school full of Liberals, while at the same time he clearly would discount how a Native American student would feel about someone in a “Warrior Brave” custume, or how black students would feel with someone as a “Black Faced Sambo”, or Asian students would feel about a “Fu Manchu/Yellow menace” outfit. He even complains about the dirty looks of scorn he received when he cheered upon learning the Matt Bevins had won the Kentucky governorship, and I get that but at the same time — really man? What did you expect?
Those dirty looks were much like the dirty looks that Clayton had received during her brief visit to the KAs House floor.
What Adkin’s experienced as a minority Conservative in a majority Liberal school isn’t all that significantly different from what Clayton felt and experienced as a minority Black student in a majority White school. Being of a particular race or affiliation isn’t really the point, it’s the potential abuse of power by that majority against a vulnerable minority that can cause serious damage.
When you’re among a majority social faction the fact that you have every social advantage, and those in the minority have every disadvantage. If there’s a vote: the majority wins even if it violates the rights of the minority to do as they would prefer. If you dare to stand out and buck the majority “norm”, well, yes, you’re likely to suffer backlash, being ostracized and shunned for it.
You shouldn’t, but very likely you will — which is an issue that goes far beyond Clayton or Adkins as we see here in a free speech/safe space argument between Ann Coulter and Robert Reich.
Coulter of course, mostly whined.
“Universities ought to be places where I am not the only conservative most students will hear in four years of college,” she opined. “This whole incident shows the radical insulated left on the college campuses. And the entire left wing, including President [Barack Obama] and Bill Maher, are on the other side.”
“And what useless institutions our universities are,” she continued. “The lefties are on the side of the thugs. They’ve taken over the universities. I don’t think anyone learns anything at college anymore. It’s a four year vacation. And I think that’s what people ought to be looking at because the taxpayers are supporting these universities.”
Yeah, right ok.
Reich to his credit argued that what is “offensive” for some is sometimes is the key point the educational process.
One of the purposes of University education is to be provoked, to examine what the evidence is. If somebody says something that is offensive, that is not per se a violation of any kind of university norm. In fact, quite the opposite. I tell my students all the time the best way to learn something is to talk to someone who disagrees with you, that forces you to sharpen your views, to test your views and you might even come out in a different place. The University, of all places, is there place where we want to have provocative views, views that some people might find to be offensive.
It comes down to being able to disagree, without becoming disagreeable. I absolutely agree with Reich here that it is from being challenged that often makes my own arguments stronger, sharper, more honest and truthful. The entire point of a “safe space” is that people are able to say what they truly think and what they truly feel — in a safe way. Where they don’t feel threatened for daring to buck the flow of the prevailing majority — no matter what the nature of that majority might be.
Adkins complains that isn’t what happened in his case as he says largely the same thing that Reich says.
Listen to what your opponent has to say instead of drowning them out in a sea of voices like you did last year. 40+ Facebook comments calling for my head on a platter wasn't constructive--I took the letter down before physical publication because I genuinely feared for my well-being and safety because people were so triggered by what I had to say.
Nobody tried to understand my point of view.
Nobody tried to listen to my words and reflect on them.
Nobody tried to respond respectfully and continue the debate.
And of course when that fails, as it appears to have done for both Clayton and Adkins the next question is how you handle it, and how you respond to it. Clayton responded by joining other students to point out how they felt threatened and at least cosmetically had that threat removed from public view.
Adkins on the other hand responded by dropping out of school, then according to his own update to his previous article he began to drink and even suffered from an overdose and trips to a mental hospital.
The constant bullying and lack of friends drove me to an overdose, a trip to the hospital, and two trips to a mental hospital. The constant thought of knowing I'd never fit in was too much for me to bear. I moved back home and started trade school in a place where I thought I fit in. Despite the face I left my past behind me, my present was too much for a friend to handle. I was very recently assaulted and literally thrown from his property after the mention of my support for Trump. But the story has a happy ending. I've realized that some people will be stupid, unintelligent bastards, but they're not at all the people I want to surround myself with. Dropping out of college was hard, but it made me realize that I'm here for myself, and I need to learn to ignore the occasional plagues of society so I can better myself and make sure to never stoop to their level.
And then he failed that pledge by acting out on his not-very-suppressed rage and attacking students at his former school with a machete and knives. Fortunately, no one was fatally injured so there is a pathway back from all this for him.
But that was definitely the wrong answer. For everyone.
I don’t know if people can talk someone out of this kind of downward spiral, I don’t know for sure if better social and family support, some more sympathetic voices and potentially better interaction and more patience from those who vehemently disagreed with his views — and he actually doesn’t detail very many of them in this piece — would have reversed his course when mental health professionals seems unequal to the task. It’s possible he was already set on this path, even in his chose to buy into deeply conservative views, regardless of anyone elses actions or words.
But perhaps, just perhaps, we should pause sometimes in our holy outrage and consider there are other people that we’re shouting and pointing our fingers at. They have feelings too.
Sometime maybe an open conversation, honest but respectful, can do much more good than a slogan scrawled on a sign. Not that you might change the views of a person like Adkins, but in the process you might learn something yourself. I understand that many who disagree with us and our own particular view, largely because we’re begin socially stratified by unsocial media, we’ve begun going further and further down our own insulated rabbit holes which largely support what we already believe no matter how batshit it may ultimately be, and that the walls between the social, racial, economic and ideological divides have grown thicker and higher. I get that, and that it remains one of the largest challenges to not just America but many countries as greater hatred and fear ferments behind the walls of isolation.
Still, i do pray that it’s not completely too late to tear some of those walls down, if not to prevent what Clayton experienced, but also what Adkins experienced and ultimately did in his own attempt to “retaliate” to the discrimination and persecution he perceived.