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Why We Must (Almost) Always Let People Speak Their Minds
Especially when we don’t want to hear it.
On March 2, 2017, at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, Charles Murray was scheduled to speak. You’ve probably heard his name before. Murray has been labeled as a racist and bigot, in particular for claiming in his book The Bell Curve that there are intelligence (IQ) differences between races.
Murray had been invited to speak by a student group called the American Enterprise Club, which aimed “to promote … free enterprise, a limited federal government, a strong national defense.” In an article in The Middlebury Campus newspaper, the group invited students, faculty, and staff to join the talk “to ensure that this is a thoughtful and academic discussion of ideas.”
On that day, however, Murray was not allowed to speak. Nor was Allison Stranger, a left-leaning Middlebury professor who had been asked to engage Murray in conversation. Protesters in the hall chanted for nearly 20 minutes, forcing Murray and Stranger to change venues. But, when Murray and Stranger finished their discussion at the alternate venue, they found protestors gathered just outside.
As Murray and Stranger tried to reach their waiting car, the protestors began pushing them and one grabbed Stranger’s hair and twisted her neck. As a…
