Hampshire College Silences Black Speaker Over Her Support for Second Amendment

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2017/12/07/hampshire-college-silences-black-speaker-over-her-support-for-second-amendment/

Hampshire College, the ultra-progressive institution that has previously made headlines for flying the American flag at half-staff after the election of President Donald Trump, is now on the receiving end of a backlash over its decision to rescind its speaking invitation for Antonia Okafor, a pro-Second Amendment black woman. 

Meanwhile, Okafor’s speaking engagement at nearby Mount Holyoke College — titled “Female Empowerment and the Second Amendment” — is slated to go forward Thursday evening, although administrators have taken steps to provide “alternative spaces” for students intending to protest her talk.

Hampshire College, however, is now claiming it pulled the plug on Okafor not due to her views, but because “the college did not follow its own procedures in sufficiently reviewing the application before we approved it.”

“We take responsibility for that mistake,” the college announced in a prepared statement issued Thursday morning. 

Okafor had been slated to speak at Hampshire College on Wednesday night. 

Leading up to the rescinding of Okafor’s invitation, however, an administrator told the College Fix website that Okafor’s speech sponsor had erred in the speaking event application by omitting certain information, apparently, that her talk would trigger an “intense debate.” 

The campus-carry activist announced on social media that she was not informed about the cancellation of the speaking event until just two hours prior to its start.

“We canceled the event when we realized that the student application was not sufficiently complete. It lacked the necessary details we require in advance of any event, particularly one that might draw large audiences and intense debate, so we can allot the appropriate resources to staff and support the event,” Hampshire College officials added in their revised statement Thursday. “We will reach out to Antonia Okafor and to the student organizers with an offer to discuss this process and consider options for rescheduling her visit to campus.”

Okafor viewed the college’s response with skepticism, and earlier this week, the Washington Examiner spoke with student event hosts who planned Okafor’s visit. The hosts told the Examiner that they submitted a photo of Okafor toting two Kimber 1911 pistols and Okafor’s biography, and made it clear that her talk would focus on the Second Amendment. 

 

Okafor vented her frustration in a Facebook post: 

The Lone Conservative website offered more damning information, including copies of Hampshire’s initial email approving the event and a second email sent by Carolyn Koske Strycharz, Hampshire’s assistant director of campus leadership and activities, informing Hirani just hours before Okafor was slated to speak that she was being uninvited due to the subject matter being “controversial.”