Episode 194: What Do We Want? Genocide! When Do We Want It? Now!

This week on Blocked and Reported, Jesse and Katie discuss the recent Congressional hearings on antisemitism and free speech on campus. Plus, NaNoWriMo updates (sorry).

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Jonathan Chait: “The College Presidents Were Right About Campus Antisemitism”

NYT: “College Presidents Under Fire After Dodging Questions About Antisemitism”

“FIRE to Congress, university presidents: Don’t expand censorship. End it.”

Jesse cosplays as an Ivy president:

Representative Stefanik, our conduct codes attempt to balance free speech, which is an important value to our university, with the safety and well-being of students. Because of this balance, which can be tricky, there might be instances in which truly grotesque statements — statements that I, as the president of the university, denounce unequivocally — fall beyond the scope of what we can punish. In certain instances, yes, that could even include calls for genocide. Our conduct codes are written in a manner in which a student or student group could be punished for these statements if they targeted individual students or student groups in a pervasive manner, or if they constituted a true threat or incitement to violence, but it really is context dependent. I know that’s an unsatisfactory answer, but it’s the only answer I can give you as a representative of my university. As an individual, of course I find calls for genocide against any group, and particular a group like Jews that have faced genocide in recent history, unbelievably offensive. But that’s a different question from what powers I have to punish these statements without running afoul of our own conduct code, which could lead to legal trouble for my university.

Shadi Hamid thread: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1732419156828463382.htmlLee Kovarsky, UTexas law prof, thread: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1732423346380521593.html