Student: DePaul prof. censored me

DePaul University’s history of censoring conservatives goes back further than the May 24 clash between conservative Breitbart journalist Milo Yiannopoulos and Black Lives Matter activists. In fact, last year a freshman student was silenced in class by his English professor, Red Alert Politics reports.

Jacob, a conservative student at DePaul, posted on Reddit about his experience during a discussion about the riots taking place in Ferguson, Missouri, his hometown.

After he expressed worry for the safety of his family, Jacob received a strongly-worded email from his professor telling him to think twice about speaking up in class again.

“I need to ask you again to take a moment before you speak up in class,” the email said, “and ask yourself if the timing seems appropriate and on topic. In terms of active listening, it is good practice to look at the person who is speaking and, if you’ll be adding to what they are saying, acknowledging and checking your understanding of what she or he just said.”

Jacob has expressed his ire over the incident.

“What I find ironic about this email,” Jacob said, “is that my English professor is saying that because of the color of my skin I need to make sure I am not shutting down the ideas or opinions of others with different skin colors and backgrounds. But that’s exactly what this email is doing to me. It’s saying that you may not speak up because you are white and I may offend someone else or discourage an open discussion. It is demanding that for the sake of ‘open discussion’ I should not be discussing.”

After receiving his professor’s email, Jacob emailed him back hoping to clarify, arguing that his “comments in class were in no way disruptive, disrespectful, or off topic at all.”

But the professor reproached Jacob again and informed him that he had set up a meeting with the Dean of Students to discuss the issue. When Jacob said that he wanted to confront the Dean about it, the professor tried to cancel the meeting, but Jacob went ahead with it anyway.

After the meeting, however, Jacob eventually backed down, and “[t]he conversation and issue died just like free speech is in [America’s] classrooms.”

Jacob says that he sees the incident as an attempt to scare him into silence by his liberal professors and university administration. “And it worked,” he said. “The emails shook me up.”

In the end, DePaul was successful in censoring Jacob, as he admits that he now refrains from expressing his opinions in class as often because he is worried his grades will suffer because of his political beliefs. “Speaking up in class for what I believe has become a fearful process for me and I now tread lightly . . . I’ll slap my Bernie Sanders pin on and be a good little socialist if it means graduating.”

Jacob, however, had some final scathing words for the university after the incident.

“If this is the type of diversity DePaul, and other Universities are advocating I am fearful for my country’s future.”

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @jelawrence72