The Black Lives Matter affiliate group at the College of William & Mary is protesting a free speech event hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union because “liberalism is white supremacy.”

According to media reports, the ACLU’s Claire Gastanaga, an alumna of the college, was preparing to speak on the subject “Students and the First Amendment.” Prior to being completely disrupted and the event being shut down, as the BLM protesters raised their signs, she said:

“Good, I like this. I’m going to talk to you about knowing your rights, and protests and demonstrations, which this illustrates very well. Then I’m going to respond to questions from the moderators, and then questions from the audience.”

The protesters then surrounded Gastanaga and prevented others from being able to reach her. They shouted slogans such as:

• “The oppressed are not impressed!”
• “Shame! Shame!”
• “Blood is on your hands!” and
• “Liberalism is white supremacy!”

The protest was allegedly “payback” for the ACLU making a First Amendment defense of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., that eventually erupted into violence and led to the death of one liberal activist. Afterward, the college issued the following statement:

William & Mary has a powerful commitment to the free play of ideas. We have a campus where respectful dialogue, especially in disagreement, is encouraged so that we can listen and learn from views that differ from our own, so that we can freely express our own views, and so that debate can occur. Unfortunately, that type of exchange was unable to take place Wednesday night when an event to discuss a very important matter – the meaning of the First Amendment — could not be held as planned. 

The event, co-sponsored by William & Mary’s student-run programming organization Alma Mater Productions (AMP) and the ACLU, was entitled “Students and the First Amendment.” The anticipated conversation never occurred when protestors refused to allow Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, to be heard. The protesters then drowned out students who gathered around Ms. Gastanaga seeking to ask her questions, hear her responses and voice their own concerns.

Silencing certain voices in order to advance the cause of others is not acceptable in our community. This stifles debate and prevents those who’ve come to hear a speaker, our students in particular, from asking questions, often  hard questions, and from engaging in debate where the strength of ideas, not the power of shouting, is the currency. William & Mary must be a campus that welcomes difficult conversations, honest debate and civil dialogue.

The college has made no overt attempt to identify the protesters, or to take action to prevent similar outbursts in the future.

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