Last week, Charles Murray’s scheduled lecture at Middlebury was obstructed by violent protesters, one of whom left a professor in a neck brace. The event stunned commentators, leading many to interpret it as an escalation in liberal campus hostility.
Stunning? Yes. But an escalation it was not.
Certainly, it is always stunning to witness the behavior of radical campus protesters, but too many in the media reacted with abject horror upon learning that a speaker was not allowed to get through prepared remarks. Violence, of course, is not the norm, even at contested campus lectures. But like speaker interruptions, it’s also not new.
Murray’s lecture came just over a year after Ben Shapiro and Young America’s Foundation were greeted by a raucous mob outside his scheduled lecture at California State University- Los Angeles. Hundreds of Black Lives Matter activists formed a human chain around the lecture hall, hitting and shoving conservative students who had come simply hoping to hear from Shapiro.
As someone who worked at YAF at the time, I remember the staff in Washington being glued to the live stream, growing more worried by the minute for the safety of our Young Americans for Freedom students on the ground in LA. Unfortunately, at least two disabled people were assaulted by protesters. One, a deaf girl who was groped and touched inappropriately, another, a man with nerve damage who was shoved to the ground and kicked and hit repeatedly.
The latter, a researcher named John Minter, told The Daily Wire at the time, “They pushed me to the ground and I decided I didn’t want to get back up anymore because they were going to keep shoving me so I laid down for about 15 minutes and they just stood around me… It was much better than being pushed.”
That event was the first indication that 2016 would be a uniquely difficult year for campus conservatives.
Protestors at Shapiro’s YAF lectures at Penn State and the University of Wisconsin later that year pounded on the doors to the events, rattling students who thought they were about to storm the room. After Milo Yiannopoulos was punched in the face by a liberal student, DePaul University was so intimidated by the threat of violence from its own students that it would not allow Shapiro to set foot on campus in 2016.
It seems as though people were so distracted by the election last year, many appear to have missed the fever pitch reached in the battle for free speech on campuses. Certainly, campus events earned their share of coverage, but the reactions to Murray’s lecture lead me to believe too few people paid attention.
Students and campus activists in organizations like Young America’s Foundation have faced escalating hostility for months now, risking their safety to preserve free expression in academia. It’s exceedingly hard work for which they do not receive due credit.
Charles Murray is one of the most important political writers of our time, and college students desperately need to hear his message, as I argued earlier this week. The events at Middlebury are notable for a host of reasons, but those who found themselves reacting with surprise should catch up on what they might have missed during the year leading up to that lecture.
In an email to the Washington Examiner, Ben Shapiro himself explained, “What happened to Charles Murray was a disgrace, but it was also nothing new.” He continued, “Multiple major speakers have had their events cancelled due to protests, and some of us have seen actual violence, such as we saw at California State University at Los Angeles (that event resulted in a lawsuit, which was settled by the parties).”
“While it’s fantastic that people are now aware of the problem, they shouldn’t think it starts or stops at Middlebury,” Shapiro concluded.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
