AIM activism featured in piece from the New Yorker
April 22, 2024
When a Pro-Free-Speech Dean Shuts Down a Student Protest
Viral videos demand context, but sometimes the stories behind the clips seem to obscure what we can already see. Last week, footage circulated of a dispute in a back yard. A young woman wearing a red hijab stands in a garden stairway with a microphone in her hand. “Assalmualikum wa rahma tallahi wa barakatu,” she says. “Peace and blessings upon you all.”
A moment later, off camera, a man’s voice pleads, “Please leave. No. Please leave. Please leave. This is my house.” An older man in a gray sweater appears in front of the speaker, his arms crossed; the speaker ignores him. “Tonight is also the last night of the holy month of Ramadan,” she continues.
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In January, the conservative nonprofit Accuracy in Media drove a truck near the school with the names of people, including Berkeley students, whom the group accused of engaging in antisemitism. Chemerinsky condemned the nonprofit and its truck. “Its harassment of our students is loathsome and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” he said. “It is an attempt to intimidate students for their speech that is protected by the First Amendment.”