Leave it Vox to get it wrong. This time, it’s about nutty professor Randa Jarrar, whose dancing on Barbara Bush’s grave landed her in hot water. According to Vox’s Anna North, her predicament is essentially conservatives’ fault:
Conservatives keep sparking "free speech" battles. When a Muslim professor tweeted about racism, guess what happened? https://t.co/SNW5Ilrewb
— Vox (@voxdotcom) April 24, 2018
OK, first of all:
tweeted about racism?? wow!! thats NOT what she did!!
— Ady Figueroa (@adyfig) April 24, 2018
Lol the white washing of her tweet is so disingenuous that it’s laughable. Her tweet wasn’t about racism, it was an attack on the character of a former First Lady who was so freshly dead that her body was still warm. It was her right to say it, but be honest in ur description
— Nick Kelly (@KellyPamphlet) April 24, 2018
Seriously. And second of all, what’s the purpose of bringing Jarrar’s being a Muslim into this, if not to suggest that conservatives are bigots for taking issue with what she said? It’s pretty clear that Vox has a narrative to advance, and they’re going for it, full-steam ahead:
The story of Randa Jarrar, a professor at California State University Fresno, is different from the one we’ve seen play out again and again recently. Instead of a white, male conservative professor or guest speaker saying something controversial, leading to a social media feud over whether conservative speech is under attack, Jarrar is a liberal woman of color who became the object of attack for criticizing a conservative.
Unlike the men (and sometimes women) who have challenged “political correctness” and been deemed brave by the right for their unique intellectual courage, Jarrar is a Muslim woman who called out Barbara Bush, a beloved conservative figure who had just died, for racism. In response, her mentions quickly filled up with racist and sexist harassment, her university hinted at a possible firing, and the media coverage became bizarrely personal. Jarrar said she also received death threats.
Some conservatives and libertarians have since stepped in to defend Jarrar on free speech grounds. But Jarrar’s case is a reminder that when a woman of color speaks out on her views about race, she faces unique dangers that aren’t shared by white pundits who take controversial positions. And her speech isn’t always seen as courageous — even though women of color who call out prejudice, especially online, are virtually guaranteed to receive racist and sexist abuse.
Oh, give it a rest already. Jarrar being “a liberal woman of color” is of no consequence when it comes to free speech. Prominent media conservatives by and large defended Jarrar’s freedom of speech because it’s her right as an American.
Most conservatives in media defended her? https://t.co/FCOicHP9Re
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) April 24, 2018
1. This is an insanely generous summary of her comments.
2. Most conservatives defended her, loudly and publicly. https://t.co/pMCNBVWgZJ
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) April 24, 2018
First…we called her an idiot.
Then…we defended her right to be an idiot without losing her job…something liberals continue to fail right do. https://t.co/dmggas83Cj
— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. (@Neoavatara) April 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/CrackaJackin/status/988778827177340928
We condemned what she said, while defending her right to say it. https://t.co/eWqe5PWTTF
— Currently between fraudulent suspensions (@jtLOL) April 24, 2018
Nearly all of us defended her, including high profile conservatives at Reason, National Review, Weekly Standard, and my boss, Ben Shapiro. https://t.co/jbMDXCBuCz
— Emily Zanotti (@emzanotti) April 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/themightyko/status/988780565833900032
Why? Because it’s inconvenient, that’s why. North even acknowledges — reluctantly, we reckon — the prominent conservatives like Ben Shapiro who defended Jarrar’s right to free speech, odious as her speech may be. National Review’s David French is another media conservative who argued against punishing Jarrar for what she’d said:
Does this even need to be said? Public universities should NOT “investigate” professors even for the most vile of statements. Free speech is free speech. End of discussion.
— David French (@DavidAFrench) April 19, 2018
It shouldn’t have to be said, but here we are: https://t.co/BFVnpT3y1t
— David French (@DavidAFrench) April 19, 2018
How are conservatives like Shapiro and French “sparking free speech battles”? If anyone’s waging a war on free speech, it’s progressive SJWs. If Jarrar were a conservative professor who had cheered the death of a Democratic First Lady, you can bet liberal talking heads would be calling for her immediate firing.
So why is North not making a bigger deal out of conservatives who went to bat for Jarrar?
THREAD: For the next time bad-faith critics say that free-speech types never stand up for non-conservative academics, here's a list of prominent right-wing writers defending Fresno State University professor and execrable troll Ronda Jarrar.
— Grant Addison (@jgrantaddison) April 20, 2018
Here you go guys. Happy reading https://t.co/SKhnw63etC
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) April 24, 2018
God forbid North acknowledge that conservatives, unlike liberals, can actually walk the walk when it comes to free speech. God forbid she tell the truth.
While this piece is untrue, it is also dishonest https://t.co/whSyVQr2wi
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) April 24, 2018
This piece is a mess. For one thing, most conservatives defended Jarrar's right to free speech. but the Vox author seems to think that defending "free speech" means being uncritical of *what* Jarrar said. Does she not understand the difference? https://t.co/feg1sQn9BC
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) April 24, 2018
This is that author's second article on this subject. Both have been dumb and completely detached from reality.
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) April 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/politicalmath/status/988778393251581952
Hey @annanorthtweets , you should read some of these replies. You might want to clarify what you wrote since it's a complete fail.
— Carl Gustav (@CaptYonah) April 24, 2018
Complete and total fail.
The most hilarious part of this is Vox's pretense that the double standard on free speech belongs only to conservatives, particularly when virtually no prominent conservatives called for her to be fired. https://t.co/ABKKK48CAo
— Mo Mo (@molratty) April 24, 2018
Also funny: "when a woman of color speaks out on her views about race, she faces a unique danger."
Maybe we should ask a conservative person of color about his or her views on that. Clarence Thomas continues to be pilloried to this day.
— Mo Mo (@molratty) April 24, 2018
This is a reminder that there are two standards on speech.
It isn't about race or sex as the author suggests though.
It is about intellectual beliefs and philosophy…and conservatism is oppressed far more.
— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. (@Neoavatara) April 24, 2018
Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional tweets.
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