**Previously recorded by Phyllis Schlafly // January 2016 **
The University of California, one of our biggest university systems, has decided that the First Amendment right to free speech should be thrown out because of supposed unintended insults known as “microaggressions.” “Microaggression” is the liberal idea that certain phrases and questions should not be used because the speaker may be offending someone without even knowing it. In a series of memos to university faculty, professors were told not ask students where they are from, because that might offend somebody. They also said that professors should not ask minority students who are struggling to find the right classroom if they are lost, because that might imply that the professor does not think the student belongs at college. The memos even said that professors should not say that “America is the land of opportunity” because that statement assumes that “race and gender do not play a role in life successes.”
The leadership at UC was able to get away with imposing this ridiculous speech code on professors, but not on students. When the administration tried to make a similar speech code for students, the outcry from the student body was tremendous. At the meeting where the university regents voted on the code, many students spoke out against this infringement on their constitutional rights. Because of the tremendous resistance from students, the measure was voted down.
It is important to be aware of buzzwords like “microaggression” that liberals use to control what can and cannot be said on college campuses. Similar measures are being brought to colleges all across America, and it is important to fight these measures so that professors are free to teach history as it happened, not as the liberals wish it had happened. America truly is the “land of opportunity,” and the next generation of Americans should be taught that truth.