Political scientist Charles Murray’s speech at the University of Michigan was disrupted Wednesday after student protesters filled up the auditorium with angry chants. Protesters interrupted Murray as he attempted to speak for 40 minutes, before leaving the hall.
Campus Reform reports a Leadership Institute representative who was documenting Murray’s speech was even assaulted by one of the protesters, who grabbed the phone he was using to record the event from a 150-foot balcony.
The event, which was slated to begin at 6 p.m. EST, was immediately shut down when student activists filled up the auditorium. The group projected a “white supremacist” hologram above Murray’s head as he attempted to speak.
Students who appeared to occupy most of the auditorium seats continually chanted “Charles Murray, go away. Sexist. Racist. KKK,” throughout the proceedings. A live stream of the event provided by the College Republicans chapter who hosted the event showed the debacle as it happened.
Posted by College Republicans at the University of Michigan on Wednesday, October 11, 2017
A man who identified himself as the school’s director of public affairs attempted to bring order to the situation by taking the microphone and pleaded to the activists to remain quiet.
“We’ve been silent for too long!” protesters chanted in response, drowning out the administrator. “Stop silencing students of color!”
Charles Murray only had a few opportunities to speak, such as when one of the protesters took the stage to ask him a question. The protester asked: “Do you not understand that your book undermines our very means of speaking?”
The protester asked Murray to explain his claims about biological differences between men and women, and his thesis on differences in human IQ. Activists drowned out Murray’s answers with boos and chants accusing him of racism and sexism.
Following arguments between organizers and student protesters, the activists finally relented and left the auditorium en masse.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.