Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro is set to speak at an event on Penn’s campus next week. For years, students across the nation have protested Shapiro when he has spoken on college campuses, and his upcoming visit at Penn is likely to draw similar attention. However, I believe that if students fundamentally disagree with Shapiro, the best way to protest the event is to simply not go.
Notably, fellow conservative commentator Steven Crowder was also supposed to appear at a Penn event this month. Originally, he was set to host a debate with Penn professor Jonathan Zimmerman, but the event was recently canceled, with Crowder’s team citing security concerns and issues with Penn’s refusal to allow a livestream of the event.
Nonetheless, Crowder and Shapiro both represent our current era of 30-second internet clips and gotcha politics. Both men have built their careers by arguing, in bad faith, with college students across the nation. So, by disrupting Shapiro’s event, or attempting to debate with him, you are just playing into his hands.
Shapiro relies on his fast speaking style and the question-and-answer format of his events to lead debates. He regularly debates inexperienced college students who can’t respond fast enough. He also uses fallacious arguments and silences any valid counterarguments, as the microphone is controlled by his staff.
During a campus speaking event at the University of California, Los Angeles, an attendee pointed out that Shapiro selling a “leftist tears mug” was an inherent contradiction of his intended goal of bridging the political gap. Shapiro shut this attendee down and claimed that leftists are against freedom of speech and that he will never try to bridge the gap with a leftist. This is an example of Shapiro generalizing the wide array of American leftist groups to justify his profiting off political discourse.
In another campus talk at Cornell University, when questioned about his stance on school book bans on novels like “The Bluest Eye” and “Harry Potter,” Shapiro stated that local school boards have a right to decide what children can read. He went on to say it’s the same as not wanting a sixthsixth-grade library to include “Playboy.” Not only is it absurd to compare these books to an adult magazine, but Shapiro also does not acknowledge that the issue is not the books getting banned in elementary schools and middle schools — these books are being banned throughout entire school districts, for all grades.
Shapiro has been traveling to college campuses and speaking with students for the past 10 years. He is an experienced public debater, so attempting to have a “gotcha moment” with him is pointless. At best, you might slightly throw him off his game. At worst, you could end up in a thumbnail of a YouTube video titled “Woke Penn student freaks out.”
I believe it’s important to have open conversations and debates, especially because those experiences expose people to different viewpoints. Nonetheless, some of the most poignant and effective political conversations I have engaged in have been among close friends, family, and classmates in intimate settings — not in front of a microphone in a large auditorium hall. When speaking with a peer, there is a level of trust and understanding established. Within a debate, on the other hand, each side is just trying to win. A lot of those more personal conversations with peers have made me look at certain issues differently or encouraged me to become more politically involved.
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If you want to be a part of change, Philadelphia has a lot to offer in terms of political engagement. The Third Congressional District of Pennsylvania is having a Democratic primary in May, and whoever wins that race will represent University City and the rest of West Philadelphia for years to come. Five schools are slated to be closed in West Philadelphia, and residents are rallying to stop the closures. There is also a myriad of local community groups within West Philadelphia that tackle a wide range of issues. There are things happening in our city, where you can get involved and create real change. Protesting, disrupting, or even hate-watching a campus event headlined by individuals who will be out of the city the next day won’t change anything.
KAMAU LOUIS is a first-year Stuart Weitzman School of Design student studying city and regional planning from Orlando, Fla. His email is louis3@upenn.edu.
