When The Nazis Come To Town
Richard Spencer is coming to speak at the University of Cincinnati sometime soon, probably in January of 2018. Claiming that his First Amendment rights would be breached if the university failed to honor his request for space, UC caved to Spencer’s demands.
Spencer wants a large auditorium on the main campus. The venue of his choice must have an audience capacity of at least 800 people. Spencer wants the event to be held at a time when school is in session and students are on campus, so most likely a weekday. Spencer wants to control who is permitted to attend his event, so the university will be prohibited from selling the tickets openly. Spencer also doesn’t want to pay for the security costs to host him, which are mid-six figures, if University of Florida’s experiences with him earlier this week are any indication.
You should know that no organization or individual affiliated with University of Cincinnati asked Spencer to speak. He’s invited himself.
While I have the utmost respect for First Amendment rights, there are two crucial points to consider here. One, the First Amendment allows people to say whatever they want to the government without consequences. It extends itself to other speech, whether private or public, but in those cases, there can be consequences for what is said. Two, and perhaps more importantly, there is NOTHING in the First Amendment that says the speaker should be guaranteed a particular venue with comfy seating, tech support, HVAC, and security. The University of Cincinnati has a perfectly lovely grassy space at the center of campus. Certainly Richard Spencer could grab a bullhorn and a soapbox and stand out there to spew his hate-filled rhetoric to the masses.
In addition to caving to Spencer, the University of Cincinnati has decided to pull a Neville Chamberlain move and is asking all students to attend a “Love In” or some such emotionally smarmy event at the same time as Spencer’s event. On its surface, the “Love In” sounds smart. Why should people give Richard Spencer any attention? If we just ignore him, he’ll go away right?
WRONG.
There is a playbook that Nazis use. Don’t forget that fascism’s biggest tool is using violence to instill fear. In this case, the silence of pretending Spencer and his ilk don’t exist is violence. I can guarantee you that if the community isn’t out in full force to stand against Spencer, the Nazi response will be, “The silent majority supports us.” Yes, standing up to Nazis is scary. We all remember Charlottesville and Heather Heyer. However, ignoring them doesn’t make them go away; it does make them stronger.
Meanwhile, this is where I mention how The Ohio State University chose to handle Richard Spencer. He requested the Student Union. Ohio State said, “No.” Spencer said he’d sue. Ohio State said, “Come at us, bro.” Spencer is now suing Ohio State, but I have a feeling he’s going to regret that decision. The University of Cincinnati may regret rolling over to Richard Spencer. Ask Neville Chamberlain how well appeasement works in the face of fascism.
