ET Williams

The Doctor of Common Sense

Civil Rights

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Supreme Court Hears Gay Wedding Cake Case

No one can change the Word of God.

Washington (CNN) The Supreme Court will take up one of the most momentous cases of the term on Tuesday as it considers arguments from a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake to celebrate a same-sex couple’s marriage because he believes that God designed marriage to be between a man and a woman.

The case pits the religious liberty claims of Jack Phillips, who owns Masterpiece Cakeshop, against the couple, David Mullins and Charlie Craig, who say Phillips’ actions amount to discrimination.
Some spectators and place holders began waiting in line last Friday to secure one of the rare seats open to the public in the majestic court room.
LGBT rights advocates fear that if the Supreme Court ultimately sides with Phillips, it will diminish its landmark opinion from two years ago that cleared the way for same-sex marriage nationwide. Both sides agree that a ruling in favor of Phillips would also open the door to claims from others who engage in professional services — florists, for example — to claim that their religious liberty exempts them from public accommodation laws applicable to other businesses.
It was back in 1993 that Phillips opened the bakery, knowing at the outset that there would be certain cakes he would decline to make in order to abide by his religious beliefs. “I didn’t want to use my artistic talents to create something that went against my Christian faith,” he said in an interview, noting that he has also declined to make cakes to celebrate Halloween.
Flash forward to 2012, when same-sex marriage was not yet legal in Colorado, but two men walked into the bakery.
“The conversation was fairly short,” Philips remembered. “I went over and greeted them. We sat down at the desk where I had my wedding books open.”
The men told Phillips they wanted a cake to celebrate their planned wedding, which would be performed in another state. Phillips said he knew right away that he couldn’t create the product they were looking for without violating his faith.
“The Bible says, ‘In the beginning there was male and female,'” Phillips said. He offered to make any other baked goods for the men.
“At which point they both stormed out and left,” he said.
People line up to hear religious liberty case
The couple filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which ruled in their favor, citing a state anti-discrimination law. Phillips took his case to the Colorado Court of Appeals, arguing that requiring him to provide a wedding cake for the couple violated his constitutional right to freedom of speech and free exercise of religion. The court held that the state anti-discrimination law was neutral and generally applicable and did not compel Masterpiece to “support or endorse any particular religious view.” It simply prohibited Phillips from discriminating against potential customers on account of their sexual orientation.
Phillips then took his case to the Supreme Court and the justices agreed to take it up after mulling it for several weeks.
In court papers, Kristen K. Waggoner, a lawyer from the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom who is representing Phillips, argued that the First Amendment guarantees him the right to decline to make wedding cakes that celebrate marriages that are in conflict with his religious beliefs. She said that Phillips is protected by two parts of the First Amendment: its protections of religious exercise and free speech. While she argued that the free exercise clause forbids the commission from targeting Phillips “and like-minded believers for punishment,” she reserved the bulk of her brief for the free speech clause, perhaps targeting potential swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has at times shown an expansive view of free speech.
Waggoner argued that a person viewing one of Phillips’ custom wedding cakes — his “artistic expression” — would “understand that it celebrates and expresses support for the couple’s marriage.” She said the Supreme Court’s compelled speech doctrine “forbids the commission from demanding that artists design custom expression that conveys ideas they deem objectionable.”
In the interview, Phillips said, “I feel I’m being compelled to create artwork for an event — an inherently religious event — that goes against my faith, and I’m being compelled to do so under penalty of jail time and fines.”
Not surprisingly, Mullins and Craig see the case through an entirely different lens: discrimination.
“This case is about more than us, and it’s not about cakes,” Mullins said in an interview. “It’s about the right of gay people to receive equal service.”
“This isn’t about artistic expression,” said Craig. “I don’t feel like we asked for a piece of art, or for him to make a statement, we simply asked him for a cake, and he denied that to us simply because of who we are.”
The couple is being represented in court by the American Civil Liberties Union.
“In essence, the bakery seeks a constitutional right to hang a sign in its shop window proclaiming, ‘Wedding Cakes for Heterosexuals Only,'” the ACLU’s David D. Cole wrote in court briefs.
Cole said that whether a cake is an artistic expression is not at issue. “The question, rather, is whether the Constitution grants businesses open to the public the right to violate laws against discrimination in the commercial marketplace if the business happens to sell an artistic product.” The answer, Cole contends, is “no.”
Supreme Court set to take up LGBT rights and religious liberty
Twenty other states and the District of Columbia likewise expressly prohibit places of public accommodation from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The Trump administration sides with Phillips in the case, arguing that it falls “within the small set of applications of content-neutral laws that merit heightened scrutiny” from the courts. “A custom wedding cake is not an ordinary baked good; its function is more communicative and artistic than utilitarian,” Solicitor General Noel Francisco argued. “Accordingly, the government may not enact content-based laws commanding a speaker to engage in protected expression: An artist cannot be forced to paint, a musician cannot be forced to play, and a poet cannot be forced to write.”
But the government lawyers did draw a line when it comes to race, arguing that laws targeting race-based discrimination may survive heightened First Amendment scrutiny in part because racial bias “is a familiar and recurring evil that poses unique historical, constitutional and institutional concerns.”
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/05/politics/supreme-court-masterpiece-cakeshop/index.html

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Red Cross Demands That All Crosses Be Removed

No Crosses at the Red Cross

Red Cross Demands Branches Remove Crucifixes to Be More Secular

Volunteers have criticised the Red Cross charity after receiving a communication telling them to remove crucifixes from the walls of their branches as the organisation looks to become more secular.

The Belgian branches of the international aid organisation received an email from the Provincial Committee of the Red Cross in Liège to remove all crucifixes. André Rouffart, president of the Red Cross in Verviers, said: “We were asked to respect the principles of the Red Cross”, and not to distinguish between race or religious belief 7sur7 reports.

Mr. Rouffart said there had been pushback from volunteers and other members on the issue but downplayed the issue, saying: “I think it’s a storm in a teacup.”

Several volunteers spoke to Belgian broadcaster RTL and expressed hostility to the move, with one saying: “Let things remain as they are. We used to say ‘Christmas holidays’, now it’s ‘winter holidays’. The Christmas market in Brussels has become the ‘Winter Pleasures’.”

“For a certain part of the population — because of the Muslims — the crosses were removed in the Red Cross houses and, more particularly, in that of Verviers,” the volunteer added.

The order follows the proposed removal of a cross in France which was located above a statue of Saint John Paul II in Ploërmel, Brittany. The move sparked outrage among many and led to the Polish and Hungarian government offering to take the cross.

“Such measures must be regarded as attempts to do away with the continent’s civilisation and culture,” commented Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó.

In Ireland, Catholic priest Father Desmond O’Donnell has called on Christians to abandon the word ‘Christmas’ entirely, saying that the commercialisation of the holiday had replaced the original Christian meaning.

While old Christmas traditions being replaced, others have emerged — including anti-terror barriers wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper and bright red bows in the city of Bochum, Germany, to prevent radical Islamic terror attacks like the Berlin Christmas market massacre of December 2016.

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/12/04/belgian-red-cross-demands-branches-remove-crucifixes/

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Trump Tweets ‘Britain First’ Video of Islamic Goonery

Stand strong Jayda and Paul. We are with you.

May blasts Trump for retweeting videos posted by the deputy leader of Britain First – including footage claiming to be ‘a Muslim man destroying a statue of Virgin Mary’ – but his invite for a State Visit STILL stands

 

  • Donald Trump has retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by far-right group
  • Videos posted by Britain First’s Jayda Fransen show ‘Muslims’ committing crimes
  • Labour MPs say Mr Trump is ‘not welcome here’ and call for invite’s withdrawal
  • Jo Cox MP was shot and stabbed last year by a man who shouted ‘Britain First!’

US President Donald Trump was ‘wrong’ to share anti-Muslim videos posted by a far-right UK group, Downing Street said today.

Furious MPs insisted Mr Trump was ‘not welcome here’ following the Twitter posts but No 10 said his invite to come to Britain on a state visit still stands.

The storm over the posts – first shared by Britain First’s deputy leader – deepened as the widow of murdered MP Jo Cox accused him of ‘spreading hatred’.

The furious backlash came after the 71-year-old President retweeted content posted by Britain First’s Jayda Fransen.

Labour politician Mrs Cox was stabbed and shot outside her constituency office in Birstall, West Yorkshire, in June 2016 by a man who shouted ‘Britain First’.

The first video retweeted by Mr Trump was claimed to show a ‘Muslim migrant’ beating up a Dutch boy on crutches.

But Dutch media this afternoon said the video was ‘fake news’. The video features a born and raised Dutch man and no reports have detailed the suspect’s religion.

Mr Trump also retweeted a video of a Muslim man ‘destroy(ing) a statue of Virgin Mary’, and another where Ms Fransen wrote: ‘Islamist mob pushed teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!’ The provenance of the footage is unknown.

The row casts fresh doubt on the prospects for Mr Trump’s state visit, which has been repeatedly pushed back since Prime Minister Theresa May extended the invite in January.

Speaker John Bercow has already made clear he would block the President from getting the honour of addressing both Houses of Parliament if he does come.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Britain First sought to divide communities through its use of ‘hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions’.

‘It is wrong for the president to have done this,’ the spokesman said.

Despite the slapdown, Mrs May’s spokesman made clear that the controversial invitation for the president to make a state visit to the UK, made when Theresa May met Mr Trump in Washington in January, still stood.

‘The invitation for a state visit has been extended and accepted. Further details will be announced in due course,’ the spokesman said.

The spokesman said that Britain First ’cause anxiety to law-abiding people’, adding that: ‘British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far-right which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents – decency tolerance and respect.’

There have been claims Mr Trump has been dragging his heels on agreeing a date because he does not want to face protests – after more than 1.8million people signed a petition demanding the visit be cancelled.

Mrs May did not take PMQs in the Commons today because she is on a trip to the Middle East, but Downing Street said it would respond later.

Brendan Cox, the husband of Mrs Cox, who was killed during the EU referendum campaign last year, said: ‘Trump has legitimised the far right in his own country, now he’s trying to do it in ours.

‘Spreading hatred has consequences and the President should be ashamed of himself.’

Labour MP Mary Creagh posted: ‘Jo Cox’s killer shouted ‘Britain First’. (Trump) retweeting this hate criminal demeans his office. He is not welcome here.’

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who was embroiled in a spat with Mr Trump last year over his call for a travel ban on mainly-Muslim countries, said: ‘Britain First is a vile, hate-fuelled organisation whose views should be condemned, not amplified.’

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also urged Mrs May to take a tough stance against the President.

‘I hope our Government will condemn far-right retweets by Donald Trump. They are abhorrent, dangerous and a threat to our society,’ he said.

Labour MP Chuka Umunna told Sky News: ‘I don’t think the president of the United States, a president who has not only promoted bigotry, misogyny and racism in his own country, I don’t think he is welcome here.

‘I think the invite that has been made to him to come to our country in early 2018 should be withdrawn.

‘What we see here is the president retweeting and promoting the propaganda of a far right racist bigoted group members of which have been arrested and convicted for promoting hatred in this country.

‘I am absolutely astounded that a man – any person – in his position holding the office that he does should be promoting the propaganda of a far right British group.’

A tweet from Fransen’s account, which is verified by Twitter, appeared to celebrate the retweets by Mr Trump.

It said: ‘THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD TRUMP, HAS RETWEETED THREE OF DEPUTY LEADER JAYDA FRANSEN’S TWITTER VIDEOS! DONALD TRUMP HIMSELF HAS RETWEETED THESE VIDEOS AND HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA!’

Britain First leader Paul Golding said: ‘We’ve never spoken to him (Trump) before. But the fact he’s shared his alarm at Jayda’s arrest means we’re going to reach out to him. Jayda is recording a video message directly to him later.

‘We’re looking forward to all the new followers and support we’ll get from Trump’s publicity.’

Last year, Ms Fransen was found guilty of religiously aggravated harassment after accosting a Muslim woman.

The charge stemmed from a January 2016 incident in which Fransen, wearing a political uniform and during a so-called ‘Christian patrol,’ accosted a Muslim woman named Sumayyah Sharpe in Luton, England.

Ms Fransen admitted that she told Sharpe, who was wearing hijab, that Muslim men force women to cover up to avoid rape ‘because they cannot control their sexual urges.’

‘That’s why they are coming into my country raping women across the continent,’ Fransen told Sharpe, according to the Independent. Ms Sharpe was in front of her four children at the time.

Ms Fransen, and Britain First leader Paul Golding, 35, also of Penge, are due to appear at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court today for a pre-trial review over allegations of religiously aggravated abuse in Canterbury and Ramsgate, Kent.

A trial is scheduled for January 29, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

She will also appear in court in Northern Ireland in December charged with using threatening and abusive language in connection with a speech she made at an anti-terrorism demonstration in Belfast on August 6.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd did not immediately respond in the House of Commons when Labour MPs Stephen Doughty and Yvette Cooper raised Mr Trump’s retweets as a point of order.

Mr Doughty said the videos were ‘highly inflammatory’ and Ms Cooper said the president had given Fransen a ‘huge platform’ as one MP shouted ‘Disgraceful’ and others said ‘Go on, stand up’ at Ms Rudd.

Brexit minister Lord Callanan said Mr Trump may have not been aware of the ‘appalling’ nature of Britain First, but said the incident showed the president should be ‘more careful’ in his tweeting.

The Conservative peer told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: ‘Britain First is an appalling organisation and there is no excusing the things they stand for.

‘I can only assume that he has made a mistake and that he did not realise who Britain First were.  Most people in the UK don’t know who Britain First are.

‘I’m not excusing it. He clearly needs to be more careful what he tweets to 44 million followers.  This is manna from heaven for them.

‘We are doing exactly what they want in publicising them and giving coverage to their awful views, and Trump has helped them in that.’

Britain First previously denied any involvement in the attack on Mrs Cox, and there is no suggestion that Mair was influenced by or in any way involved with the group.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5128731/Calls-BAN-Trump-visiting-UK-far-right-tweets.html#ixzz4zrl85Vi2

 

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The New York Times Interviews The Doctor Of Common Sense

Stay tuned for more about his interview

On Sunday afternoon, when Elmer T. Williams’s wife told him that a mass shooting had taken place at a church in Texas, he leapt into action. First, he skimmed a handful of news stories about the massacre. Then, when he felt sufficiently informed, he went into his home video studio, put on his trademark aviator sunglasses, and hit record.

Roughly an hour later, Mr. Williams, 51, a popular right-wing YouTube personality who calls himself “The Doctor of Common Sense,” had filmed, edited and uploaded a three-minute monologue about the Sutherland Springs church shooting to his YouTube page, which had roughly 90,000 subscribers. Authorities had not yet named a suspect, but that didn’t deter Mr. Williams, who is black, from speculating that the gunman was probably “either a Muslim or black.”

Later, after the shooter was identified as a white man named Devin P. Kelley, Mr. Williams posted a follow-up video. He claimed that Mr. Kelley was most likely a Bernie Sanders supporter associated with antifa — a left-wing anti-fascist group — who may have converted to Islam. Despite having no evidence for those claims, Mr. Williams argued them passionately, saying that photos of Mr. Kelley circulating online suggested that he was a violent liberal.

“Sometimes, you can tell a lot from a person’s picture,” Mr. Williams said.

I came across Mr. Williams’s videos several hours after the massacre, when one of them appeared prominently in YouTube’s search results about the shooting, alongside other videos making unverified claims that had been posted by pages with names like TruthNews Network and The Patriotic Beast.

YouTube has long been a haven for slapdash political punditry, but in recent months, a certain type of hyper-prolific conspiracist has emerged as a dominant force. By reacting quickly and voluminously to breaking news, these rapid-response pundits — the YouTube equivalent of talk radio shock-jocks — have successfully climbed the site’s search results, and exposed legions of viewers to their far-fetched theories.

In a phone interview from his home in Houston, Mr. Williams told me that he had created more than 10,000 YouTube videos over an eight-year period, posting as many as 20 monologues per day, and racking up estimated 200 million views.

His hit productions have included fact-challenged videos like “Barack and Michelle Obama Both Come Out The Closet,” which garnered 1.6 million views, and “Hillary Clinton Is On Crack Cocaine,” which had 665,000. He was admitted to YouTube’s partner program, which allows popular posters to earn money by displaying ads on certain types of videos, and claims to have made as much as $10,000 a month from his channel.

“I like to call myself a reporter who reports the news for the common person,” Mr. Williams said.

Whether motivated by profit or micro-celebrity, the success of sensationalists like Mr. Williams has become a vexing problem for companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google, which owns YouTube.

These companies sort and prioritize information for their users, and most have built ranking systems that boost news from mainstream outlets over stories from less credible sources. But those algorithms can be gamed in breaking news situations by users who work fast, uploading their videos in the valuable minutes between when news breaks and when the first wave of legitimate articles and videos appears.

“Before reliable sources put up stories, it’s a bit of a free-for-all,” said Karen North, a professor studying social media at the University of Southern California. “People who are in the business of posting sensationalized opinions about the news have learned that the sooner they put up their materials, the more likely their content will be found by an audience.”

Elmer T. Williams said he had created more than 10,000 YouTube videos, posting as many as 20 monologues per day on hot-button topics.

The phenomenon is not limited to YouTube. After last month’s mass shooting in Las Vegas, a Facebook safety check page featured a story from a site called “Alt-Right News” that made false statements about the gunman, and Google’s search results displayed a conspiracy theory from 4Chan, the notoriously toxic message board. After last month’s terrorist attack in New York City, a trending topic page on Twitter briefly featured a story from Infowars, a conservative site that is popular among the conspiracy-minded.

Conservatives have argued that YouTube unfairly targets their videos while allowing liberal channels, such as The Young Turks, to post heated political commentary. And some dispute that there is any conscious gaming going on.

“There is absolutely no strategy,” said Paul Joseph Watson, an editor-at-large at Infowars and a popular YouTube personality who has 1.1 million subscribers. On the day of the Texas church shooting, one of Mr. Watson’s tweets appeared as a result in Google searches for the shooter’s name, although it has since disappeared.

Tech companies, already under fire for the ease with which they allowed Russia to interfere in last year’s election, have also vowed to take a harder stance on domestic misinformation. Twitter’s acting general counsel, Sean Edgett, told congressional investigators last week that the company would take steps to keep false stories from being featured on trending topic pages.

“It’s a bad user experience, and we don’t want to be known as a platform for that,” Mr. Edgett said.

YouTube, whose community guidelines prohibit hateful and threatening content, has begun using artificial intelligence to help identify offensive videos. But conspiracy theories don’t announce themselves, and machines can’t yet handle the complicated business of fact-checking.

In Mr. Williams’s case, human intervention seems to have been necessary. On Tuesday, shortly after I asked YouTube some questions about Mr. Williams’s account, all of his videos disappeared, and his profile was replaced by a message saying, “This account has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy prohibiting hate speech.”

Mr. Williams, who said he had recently left his job as an operations manager at a hazardous materials plant to focus on full-time punditry, has tangled with YouTube’s hate speech policies before. The company shut down one of his previous accounts for similar infractions, which he claimed cost him 250,000 subscribers and a lucrative income stream.

“If YouTube didn’t punish me,” Mr. Williams said, “I could easily be making over $30,000 a month.”

In a statement, YouTube said that Mr. Williams’s account was banned “as soon as it was flagged to us,” because its terms of service prohibit repeat rule-breakers from opening new accounts. It also said that its terms prohibit advertising from appearing on videos featuring “controversial and sensitive events, tragedies, political conflicts, and other sensitive topics.”

Even before this week’s crackdown, Mr. Williams was branching out. He sells cellphone ringtones on his website, and was considering starting his own paid streaming service. Tuesday night, just hours after he was banned by YouTube, Mr. Williams posted a video on Vimeo, another video-hosting platform. He pledged to keep insulting his favorite targets — Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama — and not shy away from controversy, no matter what the policies said.

“I don’t want to be on YouTube anymore,” Mr. Williams said. “It’s too communist.”

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Martin Luther King Was Into Unnatural Sex and Orgies According to JFK Files

He was only worried about the contents in his pants. “I have a dick” I mean…. a dream.

JFK files: FBI documents allege Martin Luther King Jr. had secret lovechild, orgies

The National Archives published more than 600 new records Friday relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy — and some addressed civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. and his multiple alleged affairs.

The FBI document, titled “Martin Luther King, Jr. A Current Analysis” and dated March 12, 1968, compiled background information on King, including his influences, associates, alleged affairs and more. King was assassinated April 4, 1968.

“The course King chooses to follow at this critical time could have momentous impact on the future of race relations in the United States,” the 20 page document’s introduction reads. “And for that reason this paper has been prepared to give some insight into the nature of the man himself as well as the nature of his views, goals, objectives, tactics and the reasons therefor.”

One of the sections in the document in the section titled “King’s Personal Conduct” mentioned alleged affairs, which were alluded to in the 2014 film “Selma” and an infamous letter from the FBI urging King to commit suicide.

The document repeatedly referred to some the alleged sex acts King engaged in as “unnatural” and “abnormal.”

One of the events mentioned in the document are workshops King held in Miami, Florida, in February 1968 with funds from the Ford Foundation to train black ministers in leadership

“One Negro minister in attendance later expressed his disgust with the behind-the-scene drinking, fornication, and homosexuality that went on at the conference,” the document reads. “Several Negro and white prostitutes were brought in from the Miami area. An all night-sex orgy was held with these prostitutes and some of the delegates in attendance.”

“One room had a large table in it which was filled with whiskey. The two Negro prostitutes were paid $50.00 to put on a sex show for the entertainment of the guests. A variety of sex acts deviating from the normal were observed.”

The document continued to say that such occurrences were well known by King’s acquaintances.

“As early as January, 1964, King engaged in another, two-day drunken sex orgy in Washington, D.C. Many of those present engaged in sexual acts, natural as well as unnatural, for the entertainment of onlookers. When one of the females shied away from engaging in an unnatural act, King … discussed how she was to be taught and initiated in this respect,” the document reads.

“Throughout the ensuing years and until this date King has continued to carry on his sexual aberrations secretly while holding himself out to the public view as a moral leader of religious conviction.”

According to the document, King had a frequent affair with a woman, which may have led to a baby girl being born. The FBI said the sources of the information was “a prominent Negro who is related by law to King’s mistress,” who referred to King repeatedly as a “hypocrite.”

“It was learned in February, 1968, from a very responsible Los Angeles individual in a position to know, that King has been having an illicit love affair with the wife of a prominent Negro dentist in Los Angeles, California, since 1962. He believes King fathered a baby girl born to this woman inasmuch as her husband is allegedly sterile,” the document reads.

“The child resembles King to a great degree and King contributes to the support of this child. He calls this woman every Wednesday and frequently meets her in various cities throughout the country.”

According to the document, the source also said that King had affairs with three other women, including Joan Baez, a folk singer.

“The prominent Negro who furnished the information said he was appalled that a man of King’s low character could cause so much trouble for both Negroes and the Government,” the document reads. “As can be seen from above, it is a fact that King not only regularly indulges in adulterous acts but enjoys the abnormal by engaging in group sexual orgies.”

The document noted an alleged disconnect between King’s actions and messages.

More documents related to JFK’s assassination have yet to be released. Last week, President Donald Trump allowed the release of 2,800 documents but withheld thousands of other documents at the request of U.S. intelligence agencies. The withheld files were placed under a six-month review, and Trump ordered the intelligence agencies to release approved documents throughout the period.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article182651026.html#storylink=cpy

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Albion College President Says It’s OK to Assault Whites Because They Are People of Privilege

Ashley showing off her white privilege…  Can’t a black girl have breastesess?

The president of Michigan’s Albion College told a student who said his girlfriend was physically and verbally harassed by anti-racism protesters on campus that it was “appropriate that all of us of privilege feel uncomfortable from time to time,” according to audio of the meeting obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

President Mauri Ditzler made the comment to student Trevor Hill about his girlfriend, identified by the student paper as Ashley Witowski, during a Sept. 25 student senate meeting at which Ditzler fielded questions from students about the campus’s increasingly fraught race relations.

Hill spoke on behalf of Witowski, who the Albion Pleiad reported was sitting near him, and recounted what took place earlier that day during a demonstration by student and staff outside the dining hall, part of a protest of a document produced by the College Conservatives club that some thought contained “racist and violent remarks.”

Hill said Witowski was shoved and verbally berated as she tried to enter the dining hall, a violation of the student handbook’s rules for peaceful protest.

“Are you aware of this harassment and what are you going to do about this,” Hill asked Ditzler, who had stood in solidarity with the demonstrators.

The president responded vaguely that he heard reports of incidents and “mistakes were made,” but that protests are only effective if they get people to listen.

“Obviously, on a busy day, lots of protests, on a hot day, lots of things happening, people are going to make statements they regret,” he added.

Ditzler said he expected the protest organizers would have an “after action” session to discuss “things they wished they could have been done differently to be more persuasive.”

“What I hope we do is become a community that understands how to articulate our positions and understands where the limits are,” he said.

Witowski reportedly left the room “visibly upset” after the president’s remarks.

Ditzler has previously refuted such accounts of his comments. He told The College Fix earlier this month that he had only “noted that peaceful demonstrations were designed to make us feel uncomfortable” and that his response to the alleged assault was “an example of how privilege (mine in this example) causes all of us to view events differently when we are in a privileged position.”

Students who attended the meeting said it was clear to them Ditzler was referring to Witowski, and that he disregarded her alleged assault as a learning experience for a person of “privilege.”

One student told the Fix she was so disturbed by Ditzler’s comments at the forum that she withdrew from Albion the next day.

Ditzler would not comment. A spokesperson said, “Since the demonstration and Student Senate meeting Sept. 25, [Ditzler] has made a point of talking with students, staff, and faculty who have wished to discuss the situation and he will continue to do so.”

The College Conservatives document that sparked the protests contained right-wing views, primarily talking points from conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, on how to discuss white privilege.

The bullet point that garnered the most backlash was not taken from Shapiro, but written by an Albion student, reading: “Take the liberal tears from the idiot you just destroyed in your debate, dissemble your American made Springfield M1911 .45 caliber handgun and apply the tears in order to clean the mechanism, reassemble and proceed to purchase Antifa and ISIS hunting permits and max out on tags.”

Other students at the senate meeting expressed their concern that Ditzler exhibits a double standard, vigorously condemning the College Conservatives for the document, but showing leniency to protesters who used crude language.

http://freebeacon.com/culture/college-president-harrassed-student-appropriate-us-privilege-feel-uncomfortable/