Ann Coulter CHUMPED!

errorHIS CAN BE FOUND AT www.onepeoplesproject.com
Ann Coulter angers students with university visit

By One People�s Project

RICHMOND, IN, Nov. 14�Over five hundred students of Earlham College, many of
them of color, packed their auditorium at Carpenter Hall to denounce racist
political commentator Ann Coulter who was invited to speak at the Quaker
college. The often heated exchange between Coulter and the students
reflected the concerns students had for weeks about her appearance and left
many saying that she may never be invited to the school again.

Coulter was invited to speak on campus in the spring by a committee, and her
discussion was to be about Constitutional law. After September 11 however, a
series of articles Coulter wrote were published and in them she attacked
Arabs and Muslims in the most vitriolic terms. Among the worst of the
language was suggesting that all terrorists were Muslims, calling for mass
deportation of Arabs and Muslims, and in the most disturbing piece said how
the United States should �invade their homes, kill their leaders, and
convert them to Christianity.� Students were shocked that Coulter would
still be allowed to come to a school that boasts a diverse spectrum of
people and culture, many of them Arabs and Muslims, and a forum was held to
discuss disinviting her. In the end it was decided that in the interest of
free speech she would still be allowed to come as planned.

A moment of silence that traditionally precedes all appearances at Earlham
was interrupted by a student who told Coulter that he was breaking the
silence to denounce her. �You called for the destruction of my friends and
their homes, which is an attack on me and my community, and on what this
community represents,� the student said before he and a large number of his
fellow students walked out of the hall saying, �I reject words of violence.�

Coulter did in fact talk about Constitutional law, but it was more of a
call-to-arms for right wingers as opposed to any real informative session.
Her basic message was about how conservatives need to gain more votes on the
Supreme Court to prevent the close majorities of the past few years, and a
portion of her speech was on racial discrimination in the courts against
whites, ignoring any racism on the part of whites against others, or flat
out denying that it existed. Much of her speech also placed a
liberal-versus-conservative slant on her points, which annoyed more than a
few of the assembled. When one person asked why she put everything in an �us
verses them� context, she had replied to a flurry of boos that it was �the
way of the world,� only to deny she said that just a few minutes later when
another person pressed her on it.

It was in fact, during the question and answer period during the convocation
and later in a meet and greet in the campus meeting room that things became
more passionate. Of all of those who spoke to her, only one was a supporter.
The vast majority admonished her for her stances, with Coulter berating
anyone that did so. When a woman in the meeting room tried to defend her
faith as a Muslim as one being of love and unity, Coulter responded, �We
haven�t seen evidence of that,� further challenging the assembled to find
one �freedom-loving Muslim country.� When another student noted Turkey,
Coulter said that it didn�t count because it was not a theocracy. When
someone asked her about her position on the attacks and murders of Arabs,
Muslims and those who look as if they were, she dismissed them by saying the
reports of them were exaggerated. She also dismissed any comparison to
domestic terrorists with those of Arab decent by regarding them as �lone
nuts,� discounting evidence that many of these domestic terrorists are
supported by a large network of supporters. When a number of students at
various times criticized her abrasive behavior as being insulting, she
charged that person with insulting her. In the meeting room particularly
which is supposed to be a place of calm and reasoned discussion, the tension
level was so raised that the moderator had to intervene. At one point, she
asked that the students give Coulter more respect, to which one student
noted that Coulter herself has not respected anyone since she arrived. That
sentiment was echoed during a second moment of silence the moderator called
to ease the tensions.

Earlier in Carpenter Hall, when one student asked why she responded to
students in such a snide and abrasive manner, Coulter responded, �Because it
�s fun!�

Meanwhile outside the hall, a group calling itself Project Lemonade
countered Coulter�s hate had another approach to the day�s events.
Originally calling itself HAHA (Helping Ann Help Arabs), they have found a
number of people to pledge money for each minute Coulter spoke. The proceeds
from this effort would go to help international students at Earlham. �One
thing about this school it that we�re an international community, and we
have a lot of students from different countries including quite a few from
the Middle East,� one student involved with Project Lemonade noted. �Every
student is considered a valuable part of the community, so a lot of people
felt like to do nothing was to accept this racist language.�

Many students at the end of the visit, including those who defended Coulter�
s appearance on the grounds of free speech, felt that she had abused the
courtesy that Earlham College had afforded her and felt that given the
disrespect they felt from her she should never be invited to the school
again.
________________________________________________

We�re Having Fun Too, Ann!

By Daryle Lamont Jenkins
November 15, 2001

I learned this from David Horowitz and after hearing Ann Coulter speak at
Earlham College yesterday I can attribute this observation to her. There are
right-wingers out there that make it a whole lot easier for people like me
to prove our points. Both Horowitz and Coulter are flat-out right-wing
propagandists. When they are speaking before a group, writing a column or
book, or appearing on radio and television, don�t expect to get anything
that wavers from what they are campaigning for. More to the point, their
efforts are not to inform, but to promote themselves. Because of this
however, that means they come to the table with little or no information or
even thought behind what they talk about, and if they are in a position
where they are countered with facts, they will respond in the most juvenile
ways, resorting to insults, indignation and just pure disrespect. When an
audience sees this it is them that are seen as the fools. Meanwhile, the
rest of us just found favor with the crowd.
So when Coulter started her routine of insulting the assembled in Carpenter
Hall, it was basically a moment for me to let her make a fool of herself. If
this was George Will or Edwin Meese, I had better be on the ball if I was
going to challenge them, because they most certainly would have challenged
me. With Coulter, there were no such concerns. I just sat back and let her
do my work for me! She won no new converts, and in fact gave the students
more ammunition to stifle her brand of conservatism.
The few supporters she had in the hall were even better for me. Coulter made
reference to the notion that black are responsible for slavery, a new
conservative routine to absolve white men of any sin. When I made a remark
from the audience, another audience member a middle-aged woman showing
evidence of inbreeding, said a snide remark to me and I figured after
Coulter�s presentation, I would challenge her on her position. See, the fun
part about conservatives playing this particular game is that it was
Afrocentric historians that first brought up how Africans had participated
in the slave trade. Conservatives have always dismissed Afrocentric history
as bunk, but have made an exception here, a part of our history that they
can use to make blacks look bad. While those historians were being honest
however, Coulter and conservative propagandists are not, conveniently
leaving out the culpability of Europeans such as the Portuguese who started
the slave trade in Africa, and those who brought us to the New World.
Conservative propaganda instead would have you to believe that blacks are
solely responsible for the kidnappings, the Middle Passage, the cruelty, the
Fugitive Slave Act, the Dred Scott decision, etc.
So, with this in mind I cornered the woman and her mother and called them on
this. This is the exchange in verbatim.
ME: "Excuse me ma'am, where did you get your information about blacks being
responsible for slavery?"
HER:"They are still practicing it today"
ME:"I know that, but where do you get your information?"
HER:"Check your history."
ME:"I did. The Portuguese started the trade in the 1440s"
HER:"I don't owe you anything!"
ME:"Who said you owed me anything?"
HER:"Check your history!"
ME:"No wait, I never said you owed me anything!"
HER:"You just get over because you're black!"
ME:"What are you talking about?"
HER MOTHER:"Free speech!"
ME:"Okay, so far you are running down every right-wing clich� they got. How
'bout backing at least one of them up?"
HER:"Don't get violent with my mother!"
ME:"Who's getting violent? What are you talking about? Back up what you
say!"
HER:"Check your history!"
I left the hall laughing like a hyena.
Coulter came to the school because the school wanted to maintain a forum
where different opinions can flourish. She however took the opportunity to
attack and demean students and those who disagreed with her, insulting the
very people who invited her in the first place, and incidentally paid her
for the opportunity. Earlham College has extended a courtesy to her, they
did not have to extend and attempted to be fair in allowing her to speak her
little mind. She responded by giving them her ass to kiss, saying to one
student who asked why she would attack the students in such a way that it
was �fun� to do so. Some students there say that will not happen again. They
do not pay tuition to have some sad woman come to their school and
disrespect them and that whom they care about, and they want to see to it
that she will never come back to Earlham.
Conservatives have long held a belief that college campuses lean toward the
political left. Regardless of whether or not that is a accurate charge, they
have used it as a rallying point for their comrades, and have created
organizations geared towards countering this alleged influence. This would
explain the hostilities of some of them when they come to these campuses on
the rare occasion to speak. This is not the first time Coulter has elicited
such a response, and in times past, she has even seen near-physical attacks
from the crowd because of it.
In the case of her contemporary David Horowitz, he attacked the students
with the same type of insults Coulter employed at his appearance at
Princeton University.
Horowitz is a piece of work in this regard. Earlier this year he tried to
force himself onto campuses via racist ads that if were not published by the
college newspaper would catch a charge by Horowitz of not recognizing his
freedom of speech. Princeton University preceded his appearance there by
printing his ad. They also exercised their own freedom of speech by
denouncing it in an editorial describing its ideas as racist and promising
to donate the ad's proceeds to the local chapter of the Urban League.
Horowitz, then refused to pay his bill unless the paper's editors publicly
apologized, which they did not do.
It seems that conservatives have some sort of tactic where they will cause
enough discourse and contention among college students and faculty in order
to make gains within their circles. Horowitz had no real case. He had no
right to force anyone to take his ad, but he banked on a school�s desire to
be inclusive, even if that means accepting people who are not. While schools
wrestled with this question he was able to turn all of this into face time
on CNN, CSPAN, Fox, MSNBC and other news outlets. Coulter meanwhile has been
canned by National Review for the past columns. Not too many people really
want to have anything to do with her, except maybe the TV show Politically
Incorrect. That is not enough, so she apparently hits the college circuit
with her hate routine�because it�s �fun.�
The logic I came away with when I heard Coulter speak is that if she has
this much animosity toward college students, and she only comes to disrupt
these campuses in the interest of her �fun,� they should do her a favor and
not invite her to speak at all. As her fellow propagandist Rush Limbaugh is
fond of saying, you have the right to speak, but you do not have the right
to be heard.
You most certainly do not have the right to pick up a tuition-funded check
for it all.
It is not as though I am suggesting that I expect everything should be
cordial, or even will be. I do not always play nice either, but when I get
dirty, I can back it up. Coulter and Horowitz cannot, and it shows.
This is also not to say all conservatives engage in this. Ward Connerly, the
black California Board of Regents member who fought against affirmative
action, came to Ohio State and although I still do not like what he was
about, I was able to come out of that experience with a lot more respect for
him than I did in the past. I even find myself quoting him every now and
then. He was still the subject of protest at the school, much like Coulter
and Horowitz have been at their appearances, but unlike Coulter and
Horowitz, he had something to say.
Conservatives are always warning others about how the most reckless in their
number can reflect poorly on the rest of the group, so they should bear that
in mind whenever they continue support of their most reckless. Ann Coulter
was chumped yesterday afternoon, chumped not just by the articulate students
of Earlham College who came armed with valid points, but by Coulter�s own
childishness. I have to thank her, to be honest, because with her as an
example a lot of us on the left are having just as much fun as her as we
point out how pathetic her side really is.