Bigot Ben Shapiro hit by protest at U of MN

Falcon Heights, MN – Roughly 50 University of Minnesota students and community members gathered on Monday, Feb. 26, to protest the presence of far-right provocateur and former Breitbart News editor-at-large, Ben Shapiro, on the Saint Paul campus. The protest, organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), demanded an end to hate speech on campus and an end to hosting such speakers with university student service fees, which are paid by all students.

The counter-protest follows national calls within national SDS to oppose speakers like Shapiro, Betsy DeVos, Milo Yiannopoulos and others, demanding that they be opposed wherever they go. As such, Shapiro is no stranger to SDS – University of Utah SDS mobilized over 400 people to demand an end to hate speech on Sept. 27, 2017 in response to a speaking engagement of Shapiro on the University of Utah campus.

Amidst chants of “Racist, sexist, anti-gay, Ben Shapiro, go away,” protesters and speakers, most prominently from SDS and the Queer Student Cultural Center, called for utilizing university funds for progressive, community-focused efforts instead of lining the pockets of top paid administrators and giving the most reactionary groups on campus tens of thousands of dollars with which to invite in racist, homophobic, and transphobic hate speakers like Ben Shapiro.

These and other demands were made as the crowd seized the only entrance to Shapiro’s event, scaring off many potential attendees and surrounding others with chants and demands as they walked up, all before leading a quick march around the Saint Paul campus of the university to demand “hate speech off campus now!”