The EMU is a great place – not only is it home to the Oregon Daily Emerald, but it’s also the campus’s source for binding, sandwiches and, thanks to the Pacifica Forum, controversy.
The Pacifica Forum was founded 15 years ago by Orval Etter, a 94-year-old retired public policy professor. His intention was to create an informal group that would gather to discuss issues such as violence, militarism, and war from multiple points of view. However, in 2003 the Forum began inviting Holocaust deniers and white separatists to speak at their meetings in order to give perspective on the Israel debate, which is a surefire way to piss off the neighbors. For example, in 2008 the Forum hosted a lecturer who referred to Martin Luther King Jr. as a “moral leper and communist dupe” and declared that an Emerald columnist who supported the war in Iraq displayed a “Talmudic hatred for humanity.” So, y’know, that’s one point of view, I guess.
Recently the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights organization, declared the Pacifica Forum a hate group, which led ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz to demand that it no longer be allowed to meet in the EMU. Members of the Pacifica Forum argue that they have every right to be there, as Etter is a professor emeritus at the University, and they are a free speech organization, not a hate group. The debate came to a head on Friday at the Pacifica Forum’s most recent meeting, billed as a response to the SPLC’s designation. What began as a discussion devolved by the end of the meeting into members of the Pacifica Forum and its detractors exercising their right to free-speech very loudly at one another. Notable highlights from the proceedings include a comparison of the Southern Poverty Law Center to the KGB and the declaration from those involved with the Forum that hate doesn’t incite violence, which the Forum’s opponents countered by declaring the Forum a “freak show” and defined anti-Semitism as reading Holocaust denier literature “without puking.” The dispute ended when Etter rose from his wheelchair, Dr. Strangelove style, and adjourned the meeting.
To the Pacifica Forum: If you’re trying to prove to the community that you aren’t a hate group, shouting at your detractors isn’t going to do you any good. Right now a whole lot of people perceive you as crazy and antagonistic, and whether that’s true or not doesn’t matter when your meetings consist of a roomful of people yelling at one another. In defending your right to be on campus, you’ve basically dug your own grave.
To the Forum’s opponents: I understand that these are heated issues. I’ve listened to the tape of the proceedings, and people indeed said some shocking things. But by yelling right back and referring to their views as “garbage,” you’re just fanning the flames and doing nothing to resolve the issue.
In this writer’s opinion, the Pacifica Forum is a hate group. It’s one thing to host a speaker at your discussion group who denies the Holocaust, but when you repeatedly give stage time to Holocaust denial and speakers with ties to neo-Nazi organizations and white supremacy groups, there is cause for concern. The Forum has thus far been allowed to meet on campus because of Etter’s ties to the University; however, I echo Dotters-Katz’s opinion that the presence of a hate group in the EMU undermines a student union’s mission of cultural development.
However, the absolute worst way to deal with what certainly appears to be a hate group is to stand there and pitch hate right back in its face – it’s a waste of time and is about as likely to make people reconsider their beliefs as their yelling is to make you change yours.
I get that this is also a very personal debate. I’m not Jewish, and while I find a lot of the things that were said at the meeting to be offensive, I’d guess they’re much more so to people closer to the situation than I. But in fighting hate, it’s important to keep your cool, lest you become what you’re fighting against. Because here’s the thing: After awhile listening to the tape, I couldn’t tell who was who anymore – it all sounded like a bunch of angry people screaming at each other.
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