It is a blessing to live in the United States, one of the greatest nations in the world. One of the best parts of being an American is the right to free speech, however, that right is under attack day after day. It is not surprising that most of the attacks on free speech are coming from the far left, but it is ironic that those who follow an ideology that claims Donald Trump is hateful are the ones doing this.
Recently, Black Lives Matter protesters shut down a College Republicans event at DePaul University that featured journalist Milo Yiannopoulos. As Yiannopoulos spoke on feminism and microaggressions, protesters stormed the stage, stole a microphone from the event moderator, began yelling anti-Trump chants and effectively shut the event down.
Milo reacted to the protest with some less-than-politically-correct remarks, but at least asserted himself, which is a big contrast to when protesters shut down a Bernie Sanders rally.
As the protest went on, a black student not affiliated with Black Lives Matter named Katie came on stage to voice her frustrations with the protest. She was quickly shut up by the protesters, presumably because her narrative was one of support for Milo and the College Republicans.
"Let her speak," cried the audience.
"No!" said the protesters.
"Why not?"
"Because we said so!"
"I am a white supremacist now? Because I believe in hard work and deciding that I need to make a life for myself makes me a racist, a bigot and a white supremacist."
After those comments, another protester began yelling at her again.
"That's cute, that's cute!" he said.
Thankfully, this based goddess was able to shut down the hate disguised as tolerance.
"I know, I'm super cute! Love it! Just look at it, I'm amazing!" she proclaimed.
"I work hard every day," retorted the protester.
"Great! Then you're not working hard right now. You're being lazy and disrespectful, and I'm pretty sure your parents didn't raise you to be disrespectful."
There was no mic drop, but the cheers from the crowd affirmed her voice despite the attempts to silence it.
Generally, Black Lives Matters have genuine concerns, but in this case, they alienated another black member of the DePaul community because she didn't conform to their ideals. The protester believed making a change came in the form of attending Milo's event, getting offended at the things he said (which should come to no surprise to anyone even remotely familiar with his work), and then sitting on a stage until the cops came.
Katie believed differently. She believed that working hard every day as a junior and math major to better herself is making more of a change in the world than sitting on a stage and stealing microphones from those who have a different opinion than you. The protesters still didn't get the message as one stood up to face her and then started shouting at her telling her to shut up. Tolerance.
Eventually, Milo decided that instead of sitting on the stage and being interrupted by the protesters he would walk out into the audience to address the hundreds of students that came to see him speak, effectively nullifying the ridiculous protest.
That is until a protest took a whistle and blew it into the microphone that he stole.
This overly sensitive behavior toward differing opinions is not new, it's just reached Tumblr levels of madness and has infected the real world, particularly college campuses. In fact, it has gotten so bad that students suggest that identifying as an American is a microaggression.
If that's truly the case, trigger warning.
I am an American first, and a Native American second. I am proud to be an American, as in a citizen of the country founded in North America in 1776 by the Founding Fathers. I love my free speech, I love the right to own guns, I love not being able to own a slave, I love having the largest military in the world and I love freedom, unlike the protesters at Milo's event.
Sure, they have their freedom to protest, but it doesn't make their protest valid. I can get behind the Black Lives Matter movement. The things that happen to black people in this country day-after-day are appalling, but silencing someone's voice isn't the way to make yours heard. Ever.
If there is anything to take away from all of this, it's that you can sit on the stage and get nothing done, or make a better life for yourself like Katie.
God bless you, Katie.
