Anti-LGBT slurs that were recently found on flyers and scrawled in chalk on the campus of MIT were a false flag campaign by students upset over the school’s new pro-free speech policies, according to a university investigation.
The MIT students behind anti-LGBT flyers and chalk messages were protesting the university’s new policies in support of free speech, according to a report by College Fix.
(Photo by Ying Tang/NurPhoto)
“The point they seem to be making was that they should not have the right to say it,” Peter Bonilla, executive director of the MIT Free Speech Alliance, told the outlet.
The anti-LGBT slurs reportedly came two months after MIT faculty introduced a resolution defending free speech and expression — even if people find it “offensive or injurious.”
A February 23 memo from MIT administrators said the flyers and chalk messages “contained slurs directly targeting the LBGTQ+ community,” but did not disclose the content of the flyers and chalking.
After MIT’s “bias response team” investigated the flyers and chalk messages, it was determined that “the messages were put up by students choosing to use extreme speech to call attention to and protest what they see as the implications” of new pro-free speech policies and efforts on campus.
“The chalking and flyers that carried slurs were put up as part of a much larger set of flyers, expressing a wide range of views, many framed in provocative terms,” Dean for Student Life Suzy Nelson and Institute Community and Equity Officer John Dozier said in the memo.
“We have been told that these flyers were intended to probe the boundaries of MIT’s commitment to freedom of expression and to determine how this commitment comports with MIT policies, including those on harassment,” the memo added.
MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen told College Fix that MIT President Sally Kornbluth is now calling for a culture of respectful speech that can live in harmony with a strong endorsement of free expression.
Campus leaders “are working on creating a range of different opportunities to engage and inspire individuals across campus to learn about, practice and model the skills to confidently, constructively, respectfully express ourselves — and listen to each other — across differences,” Allen said.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
