A woke professor was suspended with pay after posting a Facebook rant saying it is “admirable” to kill “transphobic” speakers.
Steven Shaviro, a Wayne State University professor of film studies and English, told students that just protesting “right-wing” speakers is ineffective.
“Although I do not advocate violating federal and state criminal codes, I think it is far more admirable to kill a racist, homophobic, or transphobic speaker than it is to shout them down, ” Shaviro wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post.
He added that protesting a “bigoted speaker” only gives the speaker “publicity and validation.”
“When right-wing groups invite such speakers to campus,” Shaviro continued. “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.”
Shaviro continued to say that shutting down a “racist or transphobic speaker” actually strengthens “the very bigots against whom they are protesting.”
Following the professor’s suspension, The Michigan school’s president told students the professor’s remarks were “at best, morally reprehensible and, at worst, criminal.”
“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,” Wayne State University president Dr. Roy Wilson added in the email he sent to students Monday.
School officials have since referred the incident to law enforcement, The New York Post reports.