John C Calhoun by Mathew Brady,1849. Wikicommons. Some rights reserved.
Rosemary Bechler (RB): A Yale student, as quoted in a recent Independent article on the wave of demonstrations at US colleges over race and discrimination issues, says, “It feels like you cannot stand for free speech while also standing against racism in Yale today.” A sobering dilemma, if true. But some commentators have called this a confusion of the issue. They insist that these protests, which were and are about issues of race, have subsequently been misrepresented as a controversy around free speech. Perhaps you could start, Todd, by giving us your thoughts on what the problem is, the scale of it and its significance?
