By Jill Baker, Co-editor in chief
Ben Shapiro, American conservative political commentator, took the stage in Degenstein Campus Theatre on Tuesday, March 20 to speak about the First Amendment on college campuses. He delivered on topics including racism, abortion, rape, gun control and what he called “transgenderism.”
Shapiro, an author, radio talk show host, and lawyer was welcomed with applause and laughter as he set the tone for the evening.
“I heard there was a group called Susquehanna Rising, which apparently failed to rise,” he said addressing a potential protest
from an anonymous online group.
“We want to have more events where we engage the campus in politics,” said Jonah Winakor, president of SU College Republicans, who was behind bringing Shapiro to campus. “We just hope this opened up that door where not just republicans and democrats, but everyone, can be having these conversations.”
Shapiro led right into the first amendment as he responded to an open letter written to him by sophomore Nolan Nightingale.
He read the letter to the crowd of 447 and to those streaming his presentation online.
“He’d put emphasis on claims I made that sound outrageous and then he would quickly brush past the provided context,” Nightingale said. “Essentially, this means he’s just restating my argument in a sarcastic tone of voice… What I’m trying to get at is that it isn’t worth it to try and provide rebuttal to Shapiro. He’d have to logically argue for that to work.”
Shapiro opened a dialog using his style of public speaking: he began with stating an opposing viewpoint, backed up his
own view point with in-depth statistical evidence and ended on an often-sarcastic statement that reiterated what he just backed up.
He began the night with discussing the first amendment and transitioned into talking about what he called the “key issues that
have been pressed upon us in the American political discourse.”
“People committing crimes is because people want to commit crimes, not because some white raciest forced a black guy
to,” Shapiro said during a portion regarding racism and different trajectories in American life. “A wildly disproportionate number
of people who commit murder in the US are young black males. This has nothing to do with biology of young black males obviously, it’s not about race. This is about a culture, a culture of single motherhood, a culture in which young men are being brought up without any role models and there are a bevy of studies that suggest exactly this.”
Throughout the talk the audience often laughed and clapped, but not the entirety of his audience were supporters. “I am a very
strong, and powerful person and being in the crowd I felt powerless,” Black Student Union president, Eyana Walker said. “I wanted to question where he received his statistics from because in my culture, black men do have role models. He had no right to say things about a culture he knows nothing of.”
After discussing many other hot button issues, Shapiro brought up what he deemed as his most controversial topic of the evening.
“There are differences between men and women. And men cannot magically become women, nor can women magically become
men,” Shapiro said. “This is not an animus-based argument this is a biology-based argument.” He continued in saying that the
idea of someone identifying as the other gender and therefore being the other gender, is “asinine, ridicules and anti-factual.” Also disagreeing that gender is disconnected from sex and calling “transgenderism” a delusion.
In the Q&A following he said he would use someone’s preferred name but not preferred pronouns.
This issue was the topic of many questions raised in the question and answer portion of the evening, including a question from College Democrats President Michael Kennedy.
“The Q&A was disappointing as it seemed like the majority of questions were just from people who agreed with him,” said Kennedy. “I asked my question because I disagreed with what he was saying. I wish I had more time to disagree with him, but I didn’t.”
Other questions included topics of renewable energy, gun laws, national debt, and what he would do first if he were president. Fans of Shapiro asked for book signings and advice on conservative views in the workplace.
In opposition, Kennedy with the College Democrats raised $300 to donate to Planned Parenthood in Ben Shapiro’s name.
They wanted not to shut down the event but to create something positive from it. Walker, with BSU, also had a silent protest called #WeOut, A Day Without Us, the day following Shapiro’s talk. They wore all black and stood in solidarity to let others know that they supported them when they felt alone.
Both Winakor and Kennedy believed that security at the event was prepared for any scenario and handled the event well. They
also stated that they looking forward to the Ed Rendell event on April 11 at 7:30 p.m.