Pennsylvania College Reins in Free Speech After Hillsdale Professor’s Talk Leaves Left Grumbling

Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, has given us yet another disturbing example of modern American colleges’ disdain for free speech.

David Azerrad, a professor at Hillsdale College’s D.C. campus, gave a lecture at Saint Vincent on April 8, “Black Privilege and Racial Hysteria in Contemporary America,” and the speech rubbed Gary Quinlivan the wrong way. Quinlivan is co-director of the program series at the private Catholic college about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, where Azerrad spoke.

In a letter addressed to the school’s students and faculty, Quinlivan accused Azerrad of “minimizing the role of several highly accomplished African Americans” and that “his theory as to why Kamala Harris was selected as VP on the basis of her standing solely as an African American woman [was] demeaning in many ways.”

Quinlivan added that “the speaker’s presentation was not consistent with the Benedictine values of hospitality and respect for all people.”

“We regret that it was presented at this forum,” he said.

Azerrad disagrees.

“If you listen to the talk, you can see, without really offering any substantive counterarguments, they’re just indignant that someone deviated from the accepted script when talking about race,” said Azerrad in an interview with The Daily Signal. “They just released a statement slandering me by suggesting that what I said was racist. In fact, what I said was a denunciation of racism.”

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