Alabama College Disinvites Historian Jon Meacham After Anti-Abortion Protest

[tenderfoot]

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham was invited to speak at Samford University in Alabama on the importance of civil discourse to celebrate the inauguration of the school’s new president. But Meacham has now been disinvited after students at the Southern Baptist institution, incensed that he had appeared at a Planned Parenthood event in Texas, kicked up a fuss.

“Although I am disappointed by the narrative that has combined important conversations about pro-life issues and Mr. Meacham’s planned appearance at Samford, it is vitally important to me that next week’s events unify and draw our community together to celebrate the history and future of Samford University, a place we love and for which we all care deeply,” President Beck Taylor said, according to AL.com. “Unexpectedly, Mr. Meacham’s planned lecture has become a divisive issue, one that takes attention away from our opportunity to celebrate Samford.”

https://www.al.com/education/2021/10/samford-disinvites-historian-after-student-anti-abortion-protest.html

[hlthe2b]

1. Brain-washed morons

[aeromanKC]

2. Sooooooo they weren't really serious about the importance of civil discourse??

[Igel]

14. Obviously not.

The only civil discourse allowed by side A is when it makes side B see the value of side A and further's side A's spread.

Think of the Catholic Church in the early middle ages wanting "civil discourse".

Or maybe "civil discourse" in the 1200s Islamic areas of Andalusia or Egypt. "You be civil now, accept our discourse silently as the utter truth."

[Diamond_Dog]

3. "We label anyone

Who does not go along with our extremist agenda as “divisive”.

[Sympthsical]

4. We've allowed this on our side for ages

Some "problematic" speaker comes up, students fuss, then disinvited. (UC Berkeley, looking at you).

Meh. It's a religious college. Not sure what people were expecting.

If we're super chill with our side doing this (and we very much are), I don't see why I'd get my jimmies rustled over a SB college I've never heard of.

Meacham's biography of Andrew Jackson was super interesting. One of the better modern treatments I've seen over the years.

[jimfields33]

6. 1,000,000 percent correct!

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Agreed!

That said, Meachum's politics & social outlook have been known for years.
How'd they decide to ask him in the first place?

[tenderfoot]

9. Yes, it's horrible when people protest great scholars like Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter

from speaking on their campuses.

[Sympthsical]

11. They were not the only speakers

I know. I live here. I get to see/hear every time some snit is thrown over stuff.

And even if you don't like either of them (who does, really), rioting wasn't a good look.

Which many on our side were also ok with.

[tenderfoot]

12. And even if you don't like either of them (who does, really), rioting wasn't a good look.

Rioting?

Oh you mean the "riot" where the cop pepper sprayed kids sitting on the ground because he could?



Rioting!

[greenjar_01]

15. The FIRE database lists a number of event disruptions but no official disinvitations

at UC Berkeley.

https://www.thefire.org/research/disinvitation-database/#home/

Could you be more specific on which speaker was disinvited from the University of California Berkeley?

[Dr. Strange]

16. They might be thinking of Bill Maher or Richard Dawkins.

Some students tried to get Maher disinvited from a commencement speech, but administration told the students: no, we don't do that here.

And a speech by Richard Dawkins, which was being sponsored by Berkeley’s KPFA Radio, was cancelled by them. But I don't know how closely KPFA is associated with the University.

[greenjar_01]

17. That's pretty much what the FIRE database, which seems fairly expansive in its views, suggests

It looks like Sympthsical either has a mistaken view, a faulty memory, or a rather broad definition of what "disinvited" means. To be fair, FIRE has a similarly broad definition. They list a 'YES' for disinvited even when what actually happened was that an invited speaker was disrupted by student activists in the actual venue.

That seems to me very different than a university administration officially reneging on an invitation, as seems to have happened for this Southern babtist institution in Alabama as a result of pressure from right wing anti-choice students. As far as I can tell, no officially invited speaker was ever disinvited at UC Berkeley by any university administration. I'm sure Sympthsical or one of his respondents/comrades will have better information than me or the FIRE database on this, though.

On edit: KPFA doesn't have any connection to UC Berkeley.

[Sympthsical]

18. Maher and Dawkins were two I was thinking of. Also Horowitz and Shapiro.

So ludicrous.

The others, eh. I mean, I don't like them either, but free speech should be free speech.

It got to the point that UC Berkeley was sued and settled out of court. They were charging conservative clubs "security fees" because they were worried about what anti-speech authoritarians might do (and had done): civil unrest. Liberal clubs weren't getting charged for security for their speakers.

That whole thing was some bullshit. If you don't like a speaker, don't attend the speech. Threaten violence? No.

But our side was very, very chill with it before the lawsuit. Quite comfortable.

As someone very pro-speech, it bothered me. Still does.

[greenjar_01]

19. Neither Maher nor Dawkins were disinvited from speaking at UC Berkeley

According to the FIRE database, Maher spoke without incident in 2014.

[Sympthsical]

20. I'm discussing the atmosphere of anti-speech

Maher was disinvited from the event. The University reversed it, because they were getting a ton of bad publicity.

I watched this stuff go down in real time over the past five to ten years. The anti-speech bent surrounding the university is troubling.

That's why I roll my eyes that some podunk southern baptist college did something. It's like, maybe clean up our own house a bit first.

I will say UCB has chilled a bit on this stuff since they got sued. Imagine that.

[greenjar_01]

21. Maher was not disinvited

A student group voted to disinvite him and the administration rejected their vote. That's literally the opposite of what you imply above.

This is what the administration said:

“The UC Berkeley administration cannot and will not accept this decision, which appears to have been based solely on Mr. Maher’s opinions and beliefs, which he conveyed through constitutionally protected speech,” the school said in a statement.

https://www.cnn.com/2014/10/30/living/bill-maher-commencement-speaker/index.html

UC Berkeley administration has not bowed to student pressure to disinvite speakers. It's the opposite of what happened here. In your initial post on this, you say "Some 'problematic' speaker comes up, students fuss, then disinvited. (UC Berkeley, looking at you)." It's the opposite of what happened at UC Berkeley. You're just wrong about this, despite your proximity.

[Sympthsical]

22. It's a distinction without a difference

The university had to step in after the student organization voted to disinvite.

Milo and Coulter were officially disinvited by the university itself because of violence. Horowitz was cancelled because of safety concerns. Dawkins was cancelled by a radio station for similar nonsense.

Getting into the technicalities while speaking broadly just deflects from the very fact that the university has a recent history of problems with free speech.

And this is a major, world class university, not some SB place no one actually cares about.

[11 Bravo]

5. Will FoxNoise pitch a fit about "Cancel Culture" over this?

(Just kidding, they'll ignore it.)

[bahboo]

7. their loss.....morans.....

[mentalsolstice]

10. I was in law school there when Sarah Weddington, Roe v. Wade, spoke.

Some of the undergrads were unhappy, but that didn’t stop her from addressing the law students. Samford is nothing like Liberty U., and while Baptist, it’s independent of the Southern Baptist Convention. It’s more like any other university affiliated with a mainstream religion.

Sad to hear that Mr. Meacham won’t be speaking.

[LiberalFighter]

13. Nothing Samford University does would be unifying.

If they can call themselves a university.