The student government at the University of Virginia (UVA) has banned public access to video recordings of its meetings after the conservative organization Young America’s Foundation (YAF) posted videos of student leaders outraged over a joke a professor told during a Zoom class to social media.
A student government meeting in November shows members voting to support the implementation of a “strike system” for professors accused of making comments deemed “offensive” or “racist,” according to a report by the College Fix.
The legislation was drafted after a professor apparently offended students by telling a joke about the United Nations during a Zoom class, which went as follows:
A worldwide survey was conducted by the UN, and the only question asked was, “would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the foot shortage in the rest of the world.” This survey was a huge failure. In Africa, they didn’t know what food meant. In Eastern Europe, they didn’t know what honest meant. In Western Europe, they didn’t know what shortage meant. In China, they didn’t know what opinion meant. In the Middle East, they didn’t know what solution meant. In South America, they didn’t know what “please” meant. And in the USA, they didn’t know what “rest of the world” meant.
“Fuck those professors, because you know what, they got a salary, and they got a job, and they got tenure,” said one student leader, who went on to claim that words are “violent.”
“Yeah, and you know what, words are violent,” the student said.
In the videos, student government members also heard lambasting a fellow student leader after he questioned whether the joke actually qualifies the professor as a “racist.”
“He read a well-know joke using a UN, the United Nations, reference — after self research, typing ‘United Nations joke please give your honest opinion’ in the simple Google search bar, I found approximately ten sites with the same well-known joke,” said representative Cabrera, who is also a YAF member.
“While this may not be a joke at all, we must ask ourselves how is this racist?” the student added.
According to the videos posted by YAF, Cabrera was then blasted by fellow student leaders, who claimed that he had no right to speak about issues, based on his race.
“We have white people trying to be experts on things that don’t affect them,” said one student leader, representative Bryant, who went on to ironically claim that she would “never go back and forth with a non-black person about what is racist and what is not racist to black people.”
“I’ve been waiting for this,” Bryant continued. “I’m sick and tired of people going into positions, hiding that their Trump supporters in order to get elected — we have too many men who wanna mansplain, and we have too many people who don’t have lived experiences asserting themselves into conversations that have nothing to do with them.”
“All you’re being asked to do is vote to support and stand up on behalf of and in solidarity with black students,” the student added. “If you can’t do that, then you don’t need to be a student leader. If you can’t talk about racism in a way that’s real and true, then you don’t need to be a student leader.”
“We said it was racist, because it is racist,” Bryant further insisted. “We’re not going to continue to go back and forth about what’s racist and what’s not racist.”
Cabrera reacted by stating that when it comes to sensitive topics, “it’s important to get a variety of different viewpoints.”
“And if we’re going to limit conversations around race to only black Americans, it’s almost like we’re starting to transition to a climate with limited free speech,” he added.
“Child, I told myself I was not going to show off on this meeting tonight, but it seems that I have to go there,” reacted Bryant, who went on to falsely claim that the First Amendment does not protect “hate speech.”
“So let me start with the first thing: free speech,” the student continued. “Since we want to be Constitution buffs or whatever, guess what’s not protected? Hate speech.”
“I would also like to address representative Cabrera,” said another student known as representative Hernandez.
“You mentioned that you are Puerto Rican, and as a Latinx student, I just want to echo again, I’m also a Latinx student, and I just am not understanding where you’re not understanding that there are multiple black people who have spoken up tonight, and are telling you that they were offended. What are you not understanding?” said Hernandez.
“You, as a Latinx student, myself, as a Latinx woman, I will never understand what black people go through, and you don’t either. So why are you speaking on issues that don’t involve you?” she added.
“I am sick and tired of going back and forth [with] y’all about what it is racism,” added Bryant. “So I hope everybody reads an article or watches a video after this meeting, and I hope that we don’t have to revisit this conversation — because next time it’s not going to be as cute and classy.”
After the videos were posted to social media, UVA’s student government banned public access to them.
“For the foreseeable future, and out of caution for the safety and well-being of student council members, general body recordings are temporarily unavailable to the public,” wrote the student government in all-caps on its website.
Spencer Brown, a spokesperson for YAF, said that the organization will “continue to cover the UVA Student Council’s attempts to intimidate conservative representatives and push illiberal policies.”
“The videos YAF published were not deceptively edited in any way,” added Brown. “The entire video was made publicly available by the Student Council itself, and members of the Council had shared the video even before YAF covered the situation.”
This was not YAF’s first time tackling banned content. Earlier this month, the organization offered students free copies of books that have been banned by the Burbank Unified School District in Burbank, California.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.
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