Event Description

In the 1960s, following the McCarthy era, civil rights advocates became fierce defenders of free speech. College campuses became hotbeds of radical political and social expression, and Martin Luther King declared free speech to be the central guarantee of “the greatness of America.”

In recent years, a new fervor has swept campuses with a similar goal: protecting and amplifying marginalized voices. Yet this time the emphasis is on protecting the vulnerable from speech or expression deemed hateful or offensive. This desire has led to professors issuing trigger warnings before classes, activists “de-platforming” speakers like Anne Coulter, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Richard Dawkins, and sometimes aggressive or even violent protests against faculty or speakers at The Evergreen State College, UC Berkeley, Middlebury, the University of Missouri, and elsewhere.

Is this new movement stifling the free exchange of ideas vital to democratic life, or a compassionate response to an oppressive system? Do we have a fundamental right not to be offended or exposed to speech we deem hateful? If so, who gets to decide what speech is considered offensive, and choose who is and who isn’t allowed to speak in a public forum? Is silencing offensive or even hateful speakers its own form of oppression, or of civility? Further, the ratio of college professors calling themselves liberal to those calling themselves conservative has skyrocketed, from 2 to 1 in 1989 to 5 to 1 currently. Are campuses becoming an echo chamber, a safe space, or neither?

Join us for “The Divided Campus,” an exploration of the philosophy and implications of this new movement, featuring Evergreen State College professor Sarah Eltantawi and Everett Community College professor T. Andrew Wahl. Moderated by KUOW’s Ross Reynolds.

Media sponsorship by KUOW

Admission is free, but registration is required