Fort Collins, CO – Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Charlie Kirk are speaking at CSU Tuesday, October 22, 2019.
The “Culture War” tour is hosted by Turning Point USA. Kirk founded the student organization in 2012 at the age of 18. Turning Point USA trains students and promotes principles of freedom, the free market, and limited government.
Students and attendees will hear speakers “take on big government, culture and the left as part of Culture War.” Tickets are free on a first-come, first-served basis, and students will receive priority.
There is some bad news surrounding the event, however.
The “Bad-faith Attempt”
In September, CSU President Joyce McConnell sent a concerning email about the event to students. Some students believe the email likens Kirk and students with conservative values to racism.
Blackface is racist and dehumanizing.
From: Important message to the CSU campus community, Sept. 20, 2019. Signed – Joyce McConnell, President
The swastika is an abhorrent and abiding symbol of anti-Semitism.
Acts of bias and racism are widespread across the country and the globe, but they should not be happening on the CSU campus. We stand firmly behind our principles of community and these acts and others violate our principles. We must come together, unanimously reject acts like these, and work on accountability.
We also learned Wednesday night that a student group exercising its First Amendment right to invite speakers to campus invited Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk to speak on campus on October 22 at the University Center for the Arts.
One student, asking to remain anonymous for fear of backlash, commented to Campus Reform on the message.
“I think it was a bad-faith attempt to paint a correlation between Charlie Kirk and controversy in general,” the student said. “The fact that it was in the same message as an email condemning racism doesn’t seem to be coincidental to me.”
At best, including a student group and the speaker they invited to campus in a message about racism and anti-Semitism on campus is a major gaffe. More likely, it is a deliberate attempt to undermine the student group and their event by likening them to racist actions. We see no other reason the announcement of the “Culture War” event directly followed a call to “unanimously reject acts like these [racisim], and work on accountability.”
The “Culture War” event is not a racist gathering. Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump Jr. are not pushing racist ideas. Conservative and center-right students excited about attending the event are not racists. So, why include them in the message about racism?
Unfortunately, we believe this egregious “oversight” is par for the course at many universities across the country.
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Praying for a peaceful gathering. Our niece will be attending
This is very typical comments from the leftists that enjoy the freedoms that our military provide to all of us. How does a seemingly well educated group of people be SO out of touch with the real world that they live in. Apparently the ivory towers are completely devoid of commom sense, the ability to recognise and appreciate diverse opinions of others, evaluate their opinions and decisionmake as to where their opinions differ and where they are similar. this does NOT surprise me in the least.
I am ashamed of my alma mater. My charitable contributions no longer go to CSU. I send them to Hillsdale College instead, because that school values the Constitution.
BSME ’81
That’s tragic that CSU President made such false and smearing statements. What has happened to the CSU leadership?
You know what else is dehumanizing? Having to have your speech approved by some unpredictable moderator who will approve one thing but not another. Have a texting character limitation or something. Allow open reader conversation, regardless of tone and content, or do not allow open reader conversation. The only thing removed should be blatant cursing and blatant advertisement spam. The moderating policies here are a waste of my time. Let them cry, let them shout. If you don’t like it, turn off commentary all together. “Moderating” The new code word for renewed censorship. It’s tyranny no matter how you slice it and hiding behind one political ideal or another does not change the action. When you censor, you become the tyrant.