Hate Speech is something that cannot be defined. I’m not going to try to do that in this article, but apparently Stockton University believes a few professors and students can. Stockton University is a university in Southern New Jersey, near Atlantic City. I am a student of this university, majoring in accounting. And now, I’m on the Hate Speech Task Force™ there. What is it, and how did I get on it? I really am not sure, to be honest. But I’ll try to explore that here.

It all began with the disgusting displays from all sides that lead to a death in Charlottesville. The protest/rally turned into a riot. Then protests, riots, and rising security costs when a conservative speaker like Ben Shapiro, Milo Yiannopoulos, or Richard Spencer (blech) are invited to a college campus. University presidents, Stockton’s included, were terrified of what could happen if the alt-right are present on campus. At that time, I had just transferred to Stockton University. We didn’t even have an active College Republicans chapter, let alone a fringe alt-right breakaway group. I worked hard throughout the summer and the following semester to get our College Republicans chapter up and running, assuming the Vice President position, giving the presidency to a political science major prissy boy on his way to law school. In the midst of all this chaos on college campuses from inviting conservative speakers, I was then asked by school administrators and faculty to invite a conservative speaker. That still has yet to come to fruition.

But what led to a “Hate Speech Task Force?” Right at the start of the Fall 2017 semester, the most panic inducing thing happened: a poster was hung up. Well, to be fair, multiple posters and one sticker. The posters hung up were that of Identity Evropa. Identity Evropa is an ethno-nationalist group, one that many (myself included) would argue is alt-right. And they had no formal presence on our campus. In fact, the Stockton Campus Police sent photos of these individuals for help identifying because it is believed that none of these people who hung up the sticker and posters are students of the school. In order to hang up posters at Stockton, it must be approved. That’s an easy process for school clubs and other legitimate organizations. These poster-hanging punks did it in a manner that I guess you can consider trespassing. The reaction of students, faculty, police and administrators was nothing short of overblown. They hung up posters, and a sticker on a lamp post. None of these posters said anything really, they just said “Idenitity Evropa.” The sticker said “Alt-Right.” Yes, someone bought and put a giant sticker that said “Alt-Right.” I laugh every time I think about that. I also laugh at what these people who hung up the posters look like, as they are either leftists doing this to cause a stir, or they are living proof that the Alt-Right are the SJWs of the right (something our Editor-in-Chief Halsey English often says on debates and streams). Here’s what they look like:

If you can help identify them, please contact the Stockton University Campus Police, which is an actual police department, not a bunch or rent-a-cops like other college campuses.

That was what led to the creation of this task force. Some losers putting up posters. Our do-nothing chapter president of College Republicans was invited to be part of the task force. As I said, he does nothing and has no conviction or backbone to stand up for conservative values, so he then asked me to partake in this task force. I knew I would be heading into the firing line, but I also hoped to learn from experiences of others with viewpoints different than me. A few days before this task force met, there was a “Unite Against Hate” day, which as you could imagine was a liberal echo chamber. As a member of this task force I decided to attend a few events between my classes. The first was an event titled “Hate Speech in the Classroom.” As you will read, I was flustered and angry and my College Republicans chapter was verbally attacked, so that’s the only event I went to that day (I also have more important things to do, like homework). I tweeted about my experience here (click on tweet to see full thread).

Went to a "Hate Speech in the Classroom" discussion at @Stockton_edu. Not once have we talked about a classroom incident. Mentioned President Trump multiple times. It's been 10 minutes. PATHETIC. Why is my tuition funding this charade??? — Justin ⚽ (@JustinatHalsey) February 6, 2018

It began with, as my first tweet says, talk about President Trump. I get it, he’s a divisive figure, but not a thing was mentioned about classrooms or campuses, and barely anything about hate speech. Last I check, Donald J Trump is not a student of Stockton University, although it seems he lives rent-free in the heads of these professors and faculty. Eventually a professor starts citing some scholarly sources and legal arguments to back up his arguments. I completely disagree with him, but at least he was smart about it. My admiration this professor ended quickly when he claimed that Charlie Kirk and his organization Turning Point USA that promotes conservatism among youth and on college campuses “discriminates against minority students.” My ears were perked. He said that it was astounding that the College Republicans were handing out posters and material from this hateful group. The College Republicans that I am Vice President of.

I’ve been caught, red-handed. You got me. We handed out minority-disparaging posters and materials such as posters that say “Socialism Sucks” and a booklet titled “50 Ways The Government Wastes Your Money.” At then end they were open to questions and I went back and forth with this nutty professor. I identified myself as the Vice President of the College Republicans, and asked him for proof that Turning Point USA discriminates against minorities. He danced around the question and I had to ask him once or twice more to answer my question. He told me that he would contact me with more material and articles about it. I even conceded that if he could offer proof, I would reconsider the College Republicans affiliation with Turning Point USA. Of course he never did, despite me seeing him again for a hate speech task force meeting and asking for material proof once again! His final argument for how Charlie Kirk discriminates against minorities is that one time Charlie spoke at a college campus and a few non-student white nationalists showed up and caused a ruckus. That’s victim blaming. His points that Turning Point USA aren’t just economic conservatism, they encourage filming of leftist professors (I can see why that is worrisome) and (somewhat) they are funded by the Koch Brothers are valid, but also, who the hell cares? Are conservatives not allowed to have a presence on campus? It’s clear that this professors motivation for being on this task force is to not make a difference and stifle bias on our campus, but to censor viewpoints unfavorable to him.

Oh, did I mention this professor is a proud member of Antifa? This isn’t just some accusation, it something he proudly told myself and others after the event when we came up to ask him questions and discuss, as well as on his Facebook. He claims to have grown up in California and gotten into actual fights with skinheads (he himself is a minority). New Jersey is unique, as the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security identifies Antifa as a domestic terror organization.

I also told the panel that I am on the Hate Speech Task Force, and that I hoped to learn something from this event. I learned nothing. Part of the problem was that the faculty and professors for both legal and personal/career reasons could not be specific on the few incidents they talked about experiencing. I don’t mean to sound rude, but if you are invited to speak on this panel, you should know how to frame your hate speech experience in a way that omits names and identifying factors. It’s not like the 12 kids that showed up to this event likely know about that experience anyway. But that just showed pure laziness, or maybe spinelessness because of their fear of speaking.

I hoped that once in the confines of the task force itself, these faculty and professors would be less vague and more specific so we could actually learn from these ‘hate speech’ incidents and discuss solutions. You know, the whole point of the task force. Some were a bit more open but still gave us breadcrumbs, not much to work off of. Hate Speech is a vague topic as it is, this was not helping. Overall, the hate speech task force is accomplishing little to nothing. Half (or more) of the members don’t show up to meetings or keep in contact. The meetings themselves are chaotic. This nutty Antifa professor joined the task force and took control of most conversations. Being combative and loud, shutting down any dissent. One female professor attempted to push back on his legal arguments, questioning the free speech rights of students in a classroom and those of people on the campus itself. Many times his arguments were dismantled and then he derailed the conversation. He would constantly talk about he talked with a Constitutional lawyer and that just because Stockton University receives public funds, it is not bound to the Constitution, it is still a private institution and can restrict who can speak on its campus. His arguments that teachers can control speech in their classroom and not allow recording was wrong and he was told he was wrong. As long as names and other identifying factors are not said in the recording, the student can record in the classroom. Enough about him though, the task force itself was not doing much. We broke up into three subcommittees. Each would do research and come up with solutions. I am on the committee that is looking at how and when we can train students and faculty on hate speech and how to deal with the incidents. Of course, we need the other two committees to present us with material to even get started, so we will see how that goes.

There are incidents of hate on campus. They need to be dealt with, they need to be stopped. I could live in my conservative bubble and pretend bias incidents don’t happen, but they do. Apparently a student would follow a black professor around campus with an unloaded rifle on his back. Sounds like a tall-tale and textbook harassment for law enforcement and the school to handle, but apparently nothing was done about that (if that actually happened). There are times professors, especially in liberal arts majors, may ignorantly ask the only minority student in that class to speak on behalf of their race/minority group. The whole “you people” thing. It’s ignorant, it’s not malicious, but better training needs to be in place so that doesn’t happen. And making sure that, despite the KKK or another hate group bring allowed to make a club on campus, we work to discourage them and let students know to shun them. We already do this with the kooky conservative “Liberty & Prosperity” group on our campus, run by a bunch of old guys, one being a Congressional candidate that once claimed that slavery was justified, and that Richard Stockton (the school’s namesake) did not own slaves, when historians argue he clearly did.

We can train people all we want, but nothing will change, as this task force is not researching and taking action on the biggest issue regarding hate on campus: disorganization and decentralization. The incidents that do happen are not even known about to learn from. If an incident happens to a student, they have multiple avenues to report it, if they do. The Wellness Center (counselors), Administration, a bias committee, the Campus Police, and more. Also, faculty and professors have their own separate avenues to report things. The issue is, there is no paper trail of an incident. None of these places communicate with one another. A bias incident reported to the police could never be disclosed to the administration. We should be working on streamlining and centralizing reporting and dealing with these incidents. Instead we have an unorganized task force chasing shadows and asking for strict regulations about speakers and organizations on campus abiding by our “school values,” whatever that means. If this task force still exists and I didn’t get kicked off it for writing this, I will let you know how it concluded, as it is scheduled to the end of the Fall 2018 semester.