I do believe in respecting opinions that differ from your own, but not when those opinions deny others their existence or basic human rights. There has been a lot of talk pertaining to conservative beliefs being shunned by the majority, especially at Michigan State, and I don't disagree with those claims, but I do think that we need to maintain having an intolerance for intolerance.

When George Will was a commencement speaker at an MSU graduation ceremony, many students were displeased that MSU had chosen to have a rape apologist speak to its graduates. President Simon replied to the backlash by explaining that we have to respect all perspectives, but I find it hard to respect a perspective that suggested that survivors of sexual assault claim to be assaulted to obtain a privileged position, especially at a university that continuously fails to handle sexual assault correctly. How would someone who has gone through the trauma of sexual assault respect a belief that rejects the trauma that they faced? And then that has the audacity to classify them as privileged? While Will does have the right to his own opinion, MSU didn't have to tolerate it. They shouldn't have tolerated it.

This past election has brought out a lot of extremely oppressive notions concerning several marginalized groups of people: Muslims, African Americans, immigrants and the LBGTQ community. Those certainly aren't all of the identities that have been targeted, but they received the most hate as a result of the election. A lot of people in America have an intolerance for anyone that is not white, heterosexual, American and Christian. There's such a bad intolerance that a movement promoting the radical notion that black lives are just as valuable as white lives received massive backlash, and a counter-movement emerged. We had a presidential candidate endorsed by the Klu Klux Klan, a Christian-white supremacist group that is racist down to its core. That same presidential candidate is now going to be our president. I spoke out against people that practiced islamophobia, homophobia, xenophobia, sexism, and racism, and those people claimed that I was wrong for attacking their beliefs. Even though their beliefs victimize and oppress millions of people. If you have views that favor other people over others, then expect to be shut down for those beliefs.

We have got to stop tolerating hate and people who contribute to oppression. Tolerance for intolerance is what gives the intolerance life. I will never respect an opinion that denies someone else their existence; I don't care about the First Amendment when it comes to that. If more of us stop tolerating oppression we will be surprised at the changes that will happen. Don't allow someone to tell you that you're attacking their beliefs when they are attacking someone's personhood.