Students Combat Hate Speech on Campus
Green River students and administration collaborate to deal with Anthony Parish and speakers like him in the future. In response to the May 15 free speech forum, students of Green River are coming up with new ways to combat speakers like Parish.
Several clubs have started working on solutions to combat hate speech speakers. The Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) and the Black Students’ Association (BSA) have started collaborating alongside Green River administration to try and solve the issues surrounding Parish. The two associations held a meeting two weeks ago to discuss other ways to deal with Parish. Aisha Mohamed, president of the BSA and secretary of the MSA said, “We’re looking over Green River policy to see what we can do.” Aisha also said that the two associations are following up with Green River administration regularly to formulate solutions. “We were thinking that since he’s [Parish] part of a known hate group, we could ban him because of that or because he’s causing a disruption for students,” Aisha said.
Members of Queers and Allies have also started taking action to dissuade Anthony and speakers similar to him. They along with several other clubs have worked closely with the Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to come up with solutions. Joy Chang, a member of Queers and Allies said, “We considered counter protesting Anthony, but it might be too dangerous…[Parish] causes a lot of emotional distress for members.” Instead of holding counter protests, however, Queers and Allies are countering Anthony’s negative messages with positive ones by handing out free fliers with positive messages to students. “It gives students like a daily dose of positivity to help them feel more comfortable on campus,” Chang said.
The Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has also actively started coming up with solutions. Shortly after the Free Speech Forum, members and administrators of the department sent messages to the administration at Green River to start taking action to solve the problems surrounding Parish. Department member Saba Williams, who was present at the Forum said, “Anthony is misrepresenting the communities of Green River…what he’s doing is intimidating students.” When asked what sort of other problems Parish caused, Williams said that he was embarrassing Green River because on the most recent day Parish was preaching, the school was hosting an event for new students to see the school. “What are students going to think about Green River when they see [Parish] out there harassing students?” Williams said, “He’s making the college look bad.”
Many students were affected by Parish’s activities on campus. “A lot of our international and undocumented students were afraid, so they just went home,” Williams said. “That’s so sad that students don’t feel safe here, they come here to learn.” Many students are asking why Parish was given a platform on campus. “The college is only doing damage control when it should be preventing people like him. I mean we’re paying to be here, why is our money going towards people like that?” Williams said. Mohamed gave her thoughts when she said that to reduce the amount of disruptions Parish causes towards students, administrators should relocate him to areas of campus that do have as much foot traffic.
Still, there are issues surrounding whether these solutions operate within the realm of free speech. As the freedom to express is still protected, and certain types of hate speech are protected under the first amendment. This poses a great challenge for club and department leaders to try and formulate solutions for the Parish problem. “It’s hard to differentiate hate speech from free speech and it’s even harder to keep hate off campus,” Williams said, “But Anthony is putting the diversity of our students in a bad light and we need to do something about it.”
At this point, there are still no solid solutions for the problems Parish poses, but the administration and student organizations have started a dialogue on the broader issues that impact students and how to deal with these issues in the future.
