Free to speak freely; colleges protecting faculty speech on campus and off

While promoting his latest movie, University of Kansas film professor Kevin Willmott expressed some strong thoughts on the GOP and America.

He called President Donald Trump a racist, America a racist nation and said Ku Klux Klan hate speech has become a common GOP talking point.

President Trump "is racist every day, and we don't say anything about it. We just have to tolerate it. We have to kind of accept that fact," Willmott said on public radio station KCUR.

Willmott was being interviewed about his new movie, "BlacKkKlansman," which he co-wrote with director Spike Lee.

His comments come at a time when the issue of free speech by college faculty and on college campuses has become politicized. In the last few years faculty comments have become targets on social media where those offended pressured college leaders to terminate the outspoken faculty member.

Inside Higher Education reported earlier this month that a 2016 Gallup Survey found that "nearly 30 percent of college students believe it’s OK to censor political speech if it offends a particular group ..."

In 2013 the University of Kansas suspended journalism professor David Guth after he angrily lashed out at the National Rifle Association on Twitter. After pressure from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Coalition Against Censorship, the suspension was lifted.

When contacted about Willmott's public comments, officials from the University of Kansas said, "The university is a marketplace of ideas and encourages faculty to engage on topics in their fields of expertise," said Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, a KU spokesperson.

Experts on campus and faculty free speech said that as colleges and universities are confronted with balancing free speech rights with protecting their brand, they have pulled those old polices they have on the issue of the shelf.

After a week-long student organized, race-related protest on the Columbia campus in 2015, MU adopted a written commitment to free expression, including the speech of university faculty.

"We have made a concerted effort over the last couple of years to redefine and promote our commitment to free speech," said Christian Basi, university spokesman.

He said the university also supports its faculty's right to express their expert and personal opinion outside the classroom, "but they have to make it clear that while the expression is based on their research, their experience, their expertise, it is not the official opinion of the university."

While the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education doesn't take a position on the content of an individual's speech, Ari Cohn, the director of individual rights defense at FIRE, said that faculty members should be, and in most cases are, given fairly wide latitude to engage in public discussions.

"Outside the classroom, government employees have the right to speak on matters of significant public concern," Cohn said.

In some cases, universities and colleges have come under fire for how they have responded to issues involving free speech by campus visitors, students and faculty both in and outside the classroom.

"The attention paid to this topic on a national level has grown exponentially and we have seen a dramatic uptick in faculty being targeted," Cohn said.

In April, California State University English professor Rhanda Jarrar met with widespread criticism and calls for her dismissal after she called former first lady Barbara Bush an “amazing racist” in a tweet shortly after the former first lady's death.

Last August, the University of Tampa fired visiting assistant professor Ken Storey for commenting on Twitter that destruction left by Hurricane Harvey was "instant karma" on the state of Texas because it voted Republican.

Contacted by The Star, Willmott reiterated his statement, pointing to Trump's early campaign speech calling Mexican immigrants rapists and his tepid response to neo-Nazis and Klansmen marching in Charlottesville, Va.

"The evidence is overwhelming," Willmott told The Star. "I'm not the only one saying that."

Willmott said he isn't worried that such statements will affect how he is received by his students.

"He is a racist but I am not saying it in the classroom," Willmott said. "I have a right to say it as an artist and a free citizen. I teach the history of African-Americans in film. I have to talk about race all the time. I can't teach about race and then not recognize racism when I see it in a public space."

Last month, Willmott and Lee's movie "BlacKkKlansman" won the prestigious Grand Prix at the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival in France. The audience praised the film with a 10-minute standing ovation.

Lee, who most recently collaborated with Willmott on the anti-gun violence film “Chi-Raq,” has been promoting the film and criticizing Trump in interviews around the world.

"I know my heart, I don’t care what the critics say or anybody else, but we are on the right side of history with this film,” Lee told The Washington Post.

Though Willmott has not been as prominent in railing against Trump, he is no stranger to controversy and expressing his opinion publicly. As the school year began last August, Willmott made news when he protested a new Kansas law allowing students and others to carry concealed handguns on the the campuses of Kansas public colleges without a permit and without training. He announced that he would teach in a bulletproof vest every day.

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This story was originally published June 15, 2018 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Free to speak freely; colleges protecting faculty speech on campus and off."