Are college campuses islands of intolerance?

We seem to be awash in political correctness and suppression of free speech.

Just look to our college campuses.

At the University of Missouri, student protesters, with the help of a communications professor, of all people, prevented a journalist from entering a public space. (The next day they relented.)

At Yale, students and faculty have become embroiled over the issue of … Halloween costumes.

Shortly before Halloween, school administrators issued a set of guidelines about proper Halloween attire.

It’s an extraordinary document, providing a more revealing eye into modern America than your run-of-the-mill State of the Union address.

Space limitations prevent me from reproducing the entire email, but students were warned about costumes that might offend Native Americans, Asians, Hispanics, Muslims, women and so on.

Students were also advised to be wary of costumes that offend people’s religious beliefs and “socio-economic strata.”

Finally, it asked students to consider, “Could someone take offense with your costume and why?”

The point was: Make sure that absolutely no one could be offended in any way by your costume. The guidelines could be adopted with pride by any junior high school in America.

A faculty member and residence hall administrator, Erika Christakis, waded into the issue, reportedly on behalf of students who felt the school went too far in suggesting how they should dress up for Halloween.

After all, these are America’s future leaders. Three out of the last four presidents attended Yale. So did Hillary Clinton, a leading contender for 2016.

It’s time for these elite students to assume the burdens of adulthood and make their own decisions regarding Halloween costumes.

Christakis’s email, available online, is as gently worded and thoughtful as you might expect from an academic who has spent her career working with children. I’m talking about preschoolers, not the students at Yale.

She asked, for example, if it is wrong for a white girl to dress up as Mulan, an Asian Disney character.

She said, “If you don’t like a costume someone is wearing, look away or tell them you are offended. Talk to each other. Free speech and the ability to tolerate offence are the hallmarks of a free and open society.”

Christakis has a point, however unpopular it may be on the campus at Yale.

Take someone dressing up as Caitlyn Jenner. Is that automatically offensive to transgenders or is she a celebrity publicity hound who invites this kind of attention?

The guidelines also specifically mention costumes that could be considered offensive to women.

From where I sit, nearly all female costumes could be considered offensive to women.

As a character in “Mean Girls” said, “Halloween is the one night of the year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.”

You’ve got outfits for sexy nurses, sexy policewoman, sexy lumberjacks and, of course, the ever-popular sexy Pilgrim Fantasy costume.

(Yes, these are real costumes. I did research. Nobody said this job was easy.)

While the costumes vary widely, they share common characteristics: They show a lot of skin and lead shamelessly to the objectification of women.

Which apparently is why women wear them. Don’t ask me. I’m just a man.

But this demonstrates why it’s virtually impossible to wear costumes that offend no one. One year, I dressed up as a rabbi and my wife as a nun. Was that offensive?

Would it be more or less offensive if I dressed as a nun and my wife a rabbi? Who knows? (By the way, we won first prize for “most ecumenical.”)

But, to put it mildly, Christakis’s message was not received well.

At one campus “discussion,” F-bombs rained faster than bombs over ISIS.

A letter signed by hundreds of students blasted Christakis’s email. It said, in part, “Giving ‘room’ for students to be ‘obnoxious’ or ‘offensive,’ as you suggest, is only inviting ridicule and violence onto ourselves and our community.”

We’ll see how this controversy plays out, but it’s been noted by many commentators, including liberals like Bill Maher, how intolerance of free speech comes from the left.

But not only from the left.

In 2007, conservatives fought to ban a performance, at William & Mary, by former sex workers. The show, according to the Vox website, had played there before with little controversy.

The conservatives played hardball and won. The college president, who had defended the show on First Amendment grounds, was fired. The battle was big news in Virginia, but received scant national attention.

Closer to home, we have a rather striking example of an attempt to suppress free speech.

Blogger Frank Knotts recently reproduced a letter on his Delaware Right website that was written on behalf of Lacey Lafferty, a local woman running for governor.

Knotts has written blogs critical of Lafferty, who styles herself a defender of freedom, especially when it comes to the Second Amendment.

She appears less enthusiastic about the First Amendment.

The letter, on Cooch and Taylor law firm letterhead, directed Knotts to “cease and desist any and all reference” to Lafferty. It also sought $60,000 in damages for Lafferty and two others, plus legal fees.

A gubernatorial candidate suing for defamation rates national attention. But don’t expect to see much. When national pundits, whether conservative or liberal, talk about “political correctness” and threats to free speech, they’re almost always talking about the left.

We need to protect threats to free speech coming from both sides.



Don Flood is a former newspaper editor living near Lewes. He can be reached at floodpolitics@gmail.com.