John Schindler tweets: “Nice how our glorious civilization ended in an infinite discussion of which aggrieved group has greater privilege.”<\/p>\n
Daily Beast<\/a>:<\/p>\n This month, a student group at Brown University launched a petition to pressure Janet Mock into canceling her scheduled lecture on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus. John Schindler tweets: “Nice how our glorious civilization ended in an infinite discussion of which aggrieved group has greater privilege.” Daily Beast: This month, a student group at Brown University launched a petition to pressure Janet Mock into canceling her … Continue reading
\nOne might assume this cohort was virulently homophobic or transphobic to discourage the transgender activist from serving as the keynote speaker selected by Moral Voices\u2014a group whose mission for this academic year was to raise awareness about \u201cviolence against LGBTQ+ individuals and communities,\u201d according to a statement by one of its co-chairwomen.
\nNo, based on their petition\u2019s aim, these students apparently believed it was better for Mock not to speak at all than to do so at an event connected to the Hillel chapter for the Ivy League college and the Rhode Island School of Design.
\nThat the event was not about Israel or the Middle East, or that its sponsorship by other progressive groups on campus\u2014including the Brown Center for Students of Color, Sarah Doyle Women\u2019s Center, LGBTQ Center, Sexual Assault Peer Educators, Office of the Chaplains, and the Rhode Island School of Design\u2019s Office of Intercultural Student Engagement\u2014didn\u2019t sway these students from arguing that Mock\u2019s appearance would be implicit support for\u2026 some Zionist conspiracy?
\nThe petition posted on Change.org\u2014which Brown\u2019s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) later identified themselves as at least partially responsible for when defending it in a Brown Daily Herald opinion piece\u2014argued that Mock shouldn\u2019t speak at the event because Moral Voices (although privately funded) operates through the Brown-RISD Hillel. According to these students, \u201cHillel as a corporation has consistently defended and even advocated for the Israeli state\u2019s policies of occupation and racial apartheid. Israel\u2019s violent policies center on colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of native Palestinians,\u201d and charges that it \u201chas guidelines set in place to ensure that no speaker hosted by Hillel is allowed to rigorously critique Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"