The President of the University of Michigan, Mark Schlissel, is under fire. Months of social unrest at the university have hit its peak with Richard Spencer’s request to speak at a public venue on campus. In light of the white supremacist and his allies’ recent request to rent a space at the university to speak, Mark Schissel has issued a statement in terms of a public email sent to all faculty and students and published on the U of M official website. Many students and faculty were very unhappy with his statement, and the Students4Justice group pounced on the opportunity to organize a week of protest against not only Spencer and white supremacy, but also against Schissel and the U of M administration.
The administration was annoyed, to say the least, and Schlissel issued another statement saying that a student’s best place to learn about these issues was in the classroom, and not by skipping their classes. This was a huge point of interest, and anger, at the protest Wednesday, as all of the student leaders who spoke at the rally mentioned feeling that the administration had let them down. The Students4Justice student leaders, who wanted to remain anonymous, all spoke on their views of U of M’s administration, and their incompetence in numerous situations.
One of the speakers said, “We have to show this university that this is not about hate speech, this is not about free speech, it’s about safety! None of us are safe if these Nazis are on campus.” Another said, “There have been hate crimes in Ann Arbor, there have been hate crimes on this campus, and what does Mark Schlissel do? Nothing! He literally asks us what to do after all of these things happen and we tell him, and he doesn’t listen!”
Schlissel’s main point in his statement regarding the whole situation was that although he disagrees personally with Spencer’s views, the protests give power and relevancy to him, where a more effective way to combat his speaking at U of M is to ignore him, and to not give him and his supporters material to feed off of.
“We can ignore him, reject the hate and evil he espouses, and offer support to those he targets with his racist and discriminatory views,” said Schlissel. “We can also deprive him of the attention he needs to survive and deny him the crowds he craves. Imagine the power of a room mostly empty, with his only audience being a few followers surrounded by hundreds of empty seats.”
This is a popular argument among conservative people who reject white supremacy, which led the mostly liberal students to believe that their President did not understand them.
After the speakers finished their brief speeches, the march section of the protest began, which circled around the diag and went into different buildings— including the Chemistry department and “Fishbowl” computer lab. The Students shouted chants along the whole route; these chants opposed white supremacy, but also referred to directly to punching Nazis in the face. The protesters assembled momentarily in the “Fishbowl” where more speeches were heard from varying speakers from U of M’s Students4Justice group.
“When you shut down speech you don’t know who you’re fighting for,” said Felix. “You don’t know your enemies, and you don’t know your friends.”
Another student who showed opposition to the protesters (albeit a little more quietly than Felix), was a senior named Crystal Fletcher, who specifically pointed out Felix’s bravery to stand up to the protesters, who were the vast majority in the room. Fletcher also said that she was part of the women’s march, but realized while marching that the protesters had other motives to protest, and in that in her opinion, the women’s march was not really about women. She believed the Richard Spencer protesters were perpetrating some of the same things she didn’t like about the women’s rights protesters, especially a tendency to quiet the voices of those who opposed them. “These people...they’re shutting him down. They’re doing the same thing that they’re advocating against,” said Fletcher.
Overall, the protest went without any other major hitches, and their numbers skyrocketed as passing by students took interest and joined in with the protesters as they made their way around campus and through classrooms. The #stopspencer week concluded Friday, Dec. 1, but with new issues coming to light what seems to be every day now, and the student activist’s very apparent opposition to President Schissel—who will remain in office for the foreseeable future—students should expect to hear more from Students4Justice in the future.