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Freedom to oppress: Berkeley’s civil war
Scene: Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley, 1993. I had recently started my first full-time job, working in Sproul Hall, and was taking my lunch break outside. I was entertained by an evangelist dancing around with a Bible, shouting out praises and curses while onlookers generally pointed and laughed. I thought about how different the scene might have been at my alma mater, Northwestern University, where religious conservatives were much more prominent and admired (although the sentiment at the time was that for NU students, apathy was the dominant political trait). Whereas when I arrived at Cal in 1992, I was told by a member of a student LGBT organization that people with anti-gay sentiments here were fearful and silenced.
Scene: Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley, 2017. It is the beginning of “Free Speech Week”, organized by the Berkeley Patriot student group to bring far-right speakers to the campus. While officially canceled by the organizers, invited speaker Milo Yiannopoulos insisted he was showing up anyway. Given the series of clashes that had occurred throughout the year on and near the campus, some resulting in violence and property destruction, the university wasn’t taken any chances. The plaza was barricaded, and the area surrounded by police officers in riot gear.
