What did Steven Shaviro say? Wayne State professor suspended over Facebook post
Steven Shaviro, a professor at Wayne State University, landed in trouble after sharing a post on Facebook. In the now-deleted post, Shaviro shared his thoughts on free speech on campus. As soon as his post went public and did the rounds online, Steven Shaviro was suspended from the university without pay.
His post on free speech comes after federal judge Kyle Duncan was invited to Stanford and the protestors did not let him speak. Stanford University Law School associate dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Tirien Steinbach said that this happened because Duncan's speech was causing others pain. However, Steinbach was placed on leave after she spoke her mind about the Trump-appointed judge.
"The protesters get blamed instead of the bigoted speaker" - Steven Shaviro's Facebook post on free speech on campus
Steven Shaviro took to his social media account days after the incident at Stanford and said it would be "more admirable to kill" speakers if their opinions did not align with others, rather than protesting. He claimed that oftentimes, protestors are blamed instead of the "bigoted speaker" in such situations.
His post read:
"I think it is far more admirable to kill a racist, homophobic, or transphobic speaker than it is to shout them down. When right-wing groups invite such speakers to campus, it is precisely because they want to provoke an incident that discredits the left, and gives more publicity and validation to these reprehensible views than they could otherwise attain."
It continued:
"The protesters get blamed instead of the bigoted speaker; the university administration finds a perfect excuse to side publicly with the racists or phobes; the national and international press has a field day saying that bigots are the ones being oppressed, rather than the people those bigots actually hate being the victims of oppression."
What did the University's higher authorities say about Steven Shaviro's Facebook post?
Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson condemned Shaviro's Facebook post and suspended him without pay. Wilson also released a statement in which he said that this post far exceeds the bounds of protected speech.
He said:
"We have on many occasions defended the right of free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but we feel this post far exceeds the bounds of reasonable or protected speech. It is, at best, morally reprehensible and, at worst, criminal."
Wilson's statement further read:
"We have referred this to law enforcement agencies for further review and investigation. Pending their review, we have suspended the professor with pay, effective immediately."
All you need to know about Steven Shaviro
Shaviro holds his bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University. Apart from this, he has also published two books with MIT Press. He is a faculty member at Wayne University's English Department and this is the first time he has come under the radar for sharing a post of this nature.
Steven has a massive following of 10.3k followers on Twitter and often takes to the platform to share his views.
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Adelle Fernandes