“Ye is right” demonstrators raise anger in student leaders
During the Owl Involved event, a table with hateful messages received anger from the Florida Atlantic University community.
“#Ye is right: Change my mind.” Individuals show support of Kanye West’s ideas against the Jewish community.
January 18, 2023
Editor’s Note: As of Jan. 27, the UP updated the article for clarity.
On Wednesday, students witnessed what Interim President Stacy Volnick called an instance of “hate and Anti-semitism” during the Owl Involved event that took place on the Breezeway.
Dalton Clodfelter and Tyler Russell, non-FAU students, set up a table at the North end of the Breezeway outside of the College of Business with a tablecloth that read, “#YeisRight. Change my mind.” The table had printed Tweets from Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. The Council of Student Organizations confirmed the table did not belong to the university.
There was a large crowd around the table and some students were holding pro-Israel signs.
Two unidentified men accompanied Clodfelter and Russell.
Clodfelter’s Twitter has antisemitic content, such as “forgiving Hitler.”
“To my knowledge, they didn’t have permission to be in the breezeway because they didn’t need one,” Student Body Vice President Dalia Calvillo said. “They aren’t an organization on campus. I asked them for an email confirmation with evidence as approval to be there, when they didn’t show me one, I was told they weren’t FAU associated. Unfortunately, they were permitted to be there due to the area being a free speech area.”
Calvillo details that the hate against the Jewish community has left her heartbroken. She wrote that a line was crossed between free speech and hate speech at FAU.
“I made it very clear that they had two options: me kindly asking them to leave, or me calling our FAU police department,” said Calvillo.
Hours after the incident, Volnick emailed the FAU community.
“Florida Atlantic University believes in the freedoms provided by the First Amendment; however, we also denounce Anti-Semitism in all its forms,” read the email.
Ariana Hoblin, founder and president of Students Supporting Israel at FAU, condemned the FAU administration’s inaction.
“As a Jewish student on campus, I no longer feel safe knowing that the FAU Administration failed to protect Jewish students. The FAU Administration must protect the students on campus,” Hoblin said in a statement released to the UP.
Mia Evans, former president of Hillel on campus, agrees with Hoblin.
“I understand FAU is a public campus, but when is enough, enough? We are your students, who fund this campus. Why isn’t more being done to protect us,” Evans wrote.
Inbal Shachar, an SG House of Representatives official, described the event as “unacceptable” and congratulated the SG officials present to defuse the situation.
“I am proud that my fellow Student Leaders in Student Government took a stand with me against Anti-semitism,” Shachar wrote in a statement.
Clodfelter refused to speak with UP reporters.
Jessica Abramsky is the News Editor for the University Press. For more information on this article or others, you can reach Jessica at [email protected] or DM her on Instagram @jessabramsky.
Rebecca C. Martinez • Jan 31, 2023 at 2:05 pm
As a Jew, this is not antisemitism, this is free speech, and that it is regarded as unfortunate that these individuals were permitted to continue on with their display is demonstrative of the liberal bias of the school. I find it difficult to understand how it is that these individuals feel unsafe–I wonder if Hoblin even saw the original post or if, like others, this is only believed as a result of the media discussion on this ‘issue’.
Stephan Schneider, Class of 2019 • Jan 19, 2023 at 9:06 pm
I have plenty to say about their anti-semitism and hate speech but I wanted to address another angle that also applies to all visiting hate protesters on our campus.
These events are disingenuous and are taken from the classic alt-right playbook (this YouTube series if you type in “alt-right playbook”).
They spend months studying specific “facts” and talking points in preparation and come to a college campus to attract a certain type of person. They want people who haven’t prepared for the debate (imagine going to court without preparing) and triggering people so that those who have the most riled up emotions will step up to speak. They then use those emotions and their own preparation to set the terms of the conversation. On top of this, the notion of “prove me wrong” is designed to give them control. There is a reason our Justice system uses the presumption of innocence; people presenting a claim must prove their point. The rules of logic and debate demand that one cannot feasibly disprove a notion.
Having control of the conversation, they then pair these tactics with multiple logical fallacies to look like they are winning the debate. They constantly change the goal posts, they use non sequiters, and ad hominem attacks to wiggle out of any argument made from a competent debater facing them.
There is a reason they don’t advertise their future events. They may hide behind “safety but they really don’t want people doing their homework so that someone can properly debate them and call out their bad facts and logical fallacies. Someone prepared could have countered their claims about Hitler and “loving Jews” by mentioning Hitler’s final solution, citing specific passages from his book or his speeches, and explaining the historic context of anti-semitism through even the most refined methods (such as saying Jews control society).
It’s all about chaos for these trolls. They use chaos to amplify their message. They rouse up the crowd to get people angry; this makes them look like the reasonable, calm, and rational ones. They move the goalposts in their arguments and constantly change topic to disorient their debate opponent; this makes them look smarter and like they are winning the argument.
The truth is that they are not here to debate anyone. They are here to stir people up and amplify their message, as distorted and despicable as it is.
They hide behind freedom of speech by claiming they love everyone, including Jews, but if you see their videos online talking about the event , it’s clear that they hate the Jewish people (of course they will conveniently change their definition of hate to meet their ends). In any case, Fau’s status as a public university means they have a leg up to host events like this. They know that people will not be prepared enough to properly call them out on their facade and truly expose their hatred and prejudices.
I call on our student community to actively prepare for these types of events. Take debate and logic classes in our communications and philosophy departments. For student clubs and organizations like Hillel, train someone to constantly be ready for these visitors on campus so that we can beat them at their own game. Have a binder with everything you need at the ready so that when you hear such people are on campus, you can effectively confront them. Work with faculty to develop your arguments and strategy for such instances (FAU as an institution may not be able to stop speech from happening but it can help students educate themselves). Make sure you film the encounter on your own so that if they don’t upload your person beating them, you can show their followers the truth thus embarrassing them. Make sure people manage their rightfully high emotions in the area; come up with a way to have observers effectively counter protest; absolutely no yelling or other activity that lets them call our community savage. Let your chosen champion do the work (and feel free to have tag teams).
I’m deeply saddened to see our campus repeatedly used by bigots to further their hateful message. This event hit closer due to my ties to Judaism. I hope these ideas help us fight these invaders. Personally, I see them as losers looking to impress their other friends as they come out from the dark corners of our society. They feel emboldened and use the above-mentioned tactics to come into the light. As cheesy as the metaphor is, once we know their tactics, we can push them back into the shadow.
Go Owls!
Darryl • Jan 24, 2023 at 3:53 am
The reason they don’t announce that they are coming is because they would be prevented from coming on campus if there was any notice beforehand, because the leftists who run universities don’t believe in freedom of speech. Why is questioning certain aspects of the Holocaust illegal in 17 European countries, almost 80 years after WWII? Why are Jewish people vastly over-represented in positions of power compared to their percentage of the population? Why is criticism of Israel and the conflict with Palestine constantly declared as “antisemitism”?
I do agree with you that there should be intense debate at universities and it should be filmed so all can see.. But your side will not let it happen, because if they allowed it, it’s not going to go the way you think…
Marc • Feb 9, 2023 at 8:23 am
When you say “questioning certain aspects of the Holocaust,” that almost certainly translates into saying that you don’t believe it happened. What aspects are you questioning? The fact that Jewish people and others were executed en masse? Denialism of the Holocaust is disingenuous and not based on reality, and is almost always used as a dog whistle for Neo-Nazis. And I doubt that questioning the Holocaust is banned, that seems like an over simplification.
“Why are Jewish people vastly over-represented…” Why does that even matter? Why does it matter to anyone that Jewish people are successful? The only case where it would matter to someone is if they have something against Jewish people. And I’m going to need you to provide some actual numbers for that “vast over-representation.” Because it really seems like you’re just pulling random nonsense out of your rear end.
And I find it amusing how you say that leftists won’t allow these debates in the first place. The university staff weren’t the ones removed them, it was SG who did. Additionally, I don’t think left wingers are the ones banning books, banning discussions on diversity, silencing minorities, and I can go on.
It’s clear here that you’re not arguing in good faith. You have an agenda to push here – a nasty one at that, that much is an obvious. I think everyone here can see through your concern trolling.