My hosts from the College Republicans were told by the university's Office of Multicultural Affairs -- are you ready? -- that they should have invited a white speaker to campus instead of me. Editor: Denver native and Backbone Radio contributor Joseph C. Phillips, well-known for his roles in TV and films as well as for his book "He Talk Like a White Boy," ran afoul of the campus thought police in advance of a recent speaking date in Pennsylvania. Joseph's account of how the episode turned out, given on our 4/27 show, is in this podcast. The text here is from an email he sent to another of our radio regulars, Ward Connerly of the American Civil Rights Institute, just before flying to Harrisburg for the event.
I am scheduled to speak on "Affirmative Action in the 21st Century" at Susquehanna University near Harrisburg PA on Friday evening, April 4. I was invited by the College Republicans. Early in the process the CR's asked the Office of Multicultural Affairs if they wanted to co-sponsor the event and have dinner with me following. The OMA declined.
Later the CR's were informed that the Office of Multicultural Affairs wanted to bring another speaker to campus to share the stage with me. The CR's thought about it and declined saying they didn't want to sponsor a debate. They were then told by the school website editor that they could not advertise their event unless the other speaker was on their advertisement.
CR leaders were again brought into a meeting with the OMA who told them that students were upset and they could expect that their posters would be vandalized and torn down and that there might be personal repercussions against the two student leaders of the CR. They were urged again to think about having the other speaker join me. Again they declined. I was glad of that as I am not interested in debating; been there done that.
After all of this, my hosts from the College Republicans were finally told by the university's Office of Multicultural Affairs (are you ready?) that they should have invited a white speaker to campus instead of me.
Click for podcast with Joseph C. Phillips telling the rest of the story.