The Bell Curve Speech At Universities

On February 2, 2017, the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) canceled an appearance by commentator Milo Yiannopoulos after protests over his views about minorities turned violent. One month later, Charles Murray, co-author of the controversial book The Bell Curve, was shouted down by students during a speech at Middlebury College. Accusing Murray of promoting racist views, the students objected to his speaking on campus. In 2016 and early 2017, other speeches were disrupted or canceled amid student protests. This happened at UC Davis, Brown University, New York University, and DePaul University, among others. Supporters of such protests say that speakers should not be invited to campuses to spread ideas they consider to be offensive. But others believe that the exchange of ideas—of all ideas—is an important part of free speech.

The debate has many

It's a perspective he has had since he was a student activist at Berkeley in the 1960s. Weinberg was arrested in 1964 for protesting a university policy that limited student political activity. He was part of the "Free Speech Movement." His group's protests led Berkeley administrators to overturn their ban on campus political activity later that year. This paved the way for today's college protests. Weinberg says free speech should apply to everyone. Further, he believes that trying to quash ideas only helps spread them.

"When you suppress ideas, you also increase interest in those ideas," Weinberg said. "It's understandable that people want to stop [ideas that offend them]. But it doesn't work."

PEN America is a group that promotes free expression. It has also criticized the suppression of free speech. The group says universities have been trying to make campuses friendly to diverse student bodies. In the process, they have silenced speech that makes some students feel uncomfortable. At a public college, this becomes a First Amendment