“ NO VIOLENCE, RACIST GO HOME, THIS IS WHAT DIVERSITY LOOKS LIKE!!”
Where just some of the chants that could be heard from student protesters that echoed through the hallways of the Student Union building on the campus of California State Los Angeles last Thursday. The Student association on CSULA, called Young Americans For Freedom (YAF) invited controversial well-known media correspondent on conservative politics Ben Shapiro to give his speech entitled “When Diversity Becomes a Problem”. The days leading up to the event were surrounded with multiple aggressive emails and social media posts, which caused concern by campus officials resulting in the cancelation of speech to a later date by President Covino. Shapiro regardless of threats of protesting continued with his scheduled appearance and was met by an upset angry students blockading entrance. Shapiro controversial views opposing certain high profile political issues such as the #blacklivesmatter campaign which he believes is not truly addressing a “real” racism issue in society against black men and police brutality, and how white privilege is basically just being seen as “reverse racism” led to a student wide protest against his speech to on a campus such as diverse as CSULA.
Shapiro’s supporters argued that the cancellation of the event by President Covina was infringing on their right of Freedom of Speech, which is protected under the First Amendment, while student protesters claimed Shapiro speech was in reality a“hate speech” directed at a highly diverse student body of CSULA.
As a student and minority on California State Los Angeles campus I went to this event to observe protesters and people who attended, what I saw was something that I truly cannot be described. Students linked together, chained arm in arm blocking the front door entrance into the auditorium. Students chanted and sang in protest against Shapiro. Many media news outlets recorded interactions right as the peaceful protest turned into a full on frenzy that quickly turned violent. I observed different altercations but those of men seemed to display more violently both physically and verbally. On the front lines of the protest words such as “ BITCH” or “PUSSY” being exchanged when arguments got heated which ultimately leading to pushing and shoving
As I left the campus after the protest was over I was driving past the front entrance of the school and noticed ABC, NBC, and FOX news vans all parked outside. I wondered how would these news outlets would portray the things that occurred on campus today. Lets face it; the mass media represents young minority groups in society as anything but positive especially men in these groups. We can look to the negative representation of groups of minorities in media with examples of young African American men in Hip-hop industry. The video “ Hip-hop beyond the Rhymes and beats” gives examples of how the mainstream music industry is constantly glorifying and re-enforcing the negative stereotypes of violence, sexism and homophobia in men in African American communities. The violence that erupted in the Ben Shapiro event is a result of the hypermasucline ideals that many men especially men of minority groups seem to be boxed into at the end of the day. Another thing that I noticed is that capitalism is highly invested in exploiting these stereotypes of men, which are usually negative.
Sorry Mr. Shapiro but, regardless of many of your other viewpoints I disagree with this one of the most.If the concept of Capitalism worked without the influence of race, industries such as Hip Hop and Rap wouldn’t be as profitable as it is. Capitalism profits so much off of the exploitation of cultures, it is one of the only ways many industries such as television and music can make just as much “green” by selling of “brown” and “black”. The selling of sex, violence and hyper masculinity to the masses ultimately causes their own detriment at the end day. The higher and higher you go up in the rankings of the music industries the colors of people seem to get ; lets just say less and less.
In conclusion as a society we should really understand that kind of media we are being exposed to and primarily who (white patriarchal males) is ultimately in control of it. Mediums such as film and music though can be seen as creative outlets of art, can also carry negative stereotypes for both men and women. The altercations that erupted on CSULA campus last Thursday though mostly having to do societal and political issues, also displayed act of violence by both students and supporters of Shapiro that can be linked to one ultimate thing, a patriarchal society that deems violence as the answer to solve all our problems.
