thedailybeast | Instead, the group of students thwarting Mock’s scheduled
lecture—those belonging to SJP—do, in fact, pressure people to conform
to their mind-set on the Middle East and quash intellectual diversity.
Sadly,
Mock caved to the pressure. Though the petition drew just 160
signatures, Mock canceled days before she was expected to speak on March
21 because, “We feel the focus of Janet’s work was lost leading up to
the proposed event,” her representative reportedly told the Moral Voices
organizers.
Way to go, student activists at Brown! You succeeded
in creating a hostile environment that led to a trans woman of color
being discouraged from sharing her voice and opinions. This all helped
the Palestinian people how, exactly?
Brown President Christina
Paxson expressed disappointment. “I respect her decision to avoid having
her talk be overshadowed by an issue unrelated to her work. However, I
am disappointed that a valuable learning opportunity was lost,” she said
in a Sunday email to the student body.
In that same email, Paxson also referred to campus housing facilities that had been defaced. According to the Brown Daily Herald, “Gay will die” and “Holocaust 2.0” were written on hallway walls.
“I
want to emphasize that there is absolutely no evidence that the
cancellation of the Mock event is related to the homophobic and
anti-Semitic graffiti that appeared,” Paxson wrote. “However, taken
together, these two events are deeply troubling. They come at a time
when the nation and colleges across the country are grappling with
concerns about injustice against individuals based on religion, race,
ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender expression.”
In their
op-ed, SJP members defended their group’s “my way or the highway
approach” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As the initial the
petition stressed, the students’ objections were not over Mock but
rather her willingness to take part in an event even slightly tied to
Hillel. In other words, they wanted Mock to speak—but only as long as
she agreed to the terms they dictated. It’s hardly the stuff of
international diplomacy; has digging in your heels and refusing to let people share their opinions ever brought about peace or stability?
