‘You’re a Racist White Supremacist’: Williams College Students Shout Down Christina Hoff Sommers

Students at the prestigious Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, shouted down feminist Christina Hoff Sommers during her recent lecture at the college.

Zachary Wood, a student who helped bring Sommers to Williams, penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal this week detailing his experiences during the event. During her lecture, Sommers was repeatedly shouted down and called a myriad of names. “You’re a racist white supremacist,” one student shouted. “F**k you!” shouted another. “You are complicit in upholding white supremacy!” one student shouted during an exchange.

Wood explained his shock when he read that Williams College’s President, Adam Falk, positively characterized the student’s response to Sommers. “But college administrators aren’t much help. Since Ms. Sommers’s talk at Williams, my college’s president, Adam Falk, has characterized the event as a success. He wrote in the Washington Post this week that ‘our students listened closely, then responded with challenging questions and in some cases blunt critiques.'”

“For each ‘challenging question,’ there were at least five personal attacks, directed either at her or at me for inviting her,” Wood continued. “One student started yelling aggressively, blaming me for his parents’ qualms about his sexual orientation. His rant lasted for at least five minutes. Other students stood up and exclaimed that they were better than the speaker because she was ‘stupid, harmful, and white supremacist.'”

Despite the chaos, Woods argued that he believes all of his classmates are capable of engaging in political discourse respectfully.  “As a college senior eager to engage in lively debate, I’m disappointed in students who used this event as an opportunity to taunt and disparage a speaker who made every effort to engage in good faith,” Wood wrote. “Although many student activists at Williams seem hostile to conservative ideas, I believe all of my peers are capable of disagreeing without being disagreeable.”