Laughter, yells and emotional sobs emanated from the entrance of the EMU Walnut Room, rimmed with campus safety officers, at the Jan. 8 meeting of the Pacifica Forum, titled, “Everything You Wanted to Know about Pacifica Forum but were Afraid to Ask.”
The scene was tense.
Student and community protesters lined the walls with signs reading, “Free Speech is not Hate Speech,” surrounding a seated group of Forum supporters all appearing to be older than 40, while curious observers with shocked expressions crowded the doorway. A sign on the door read: “This is not a University of Oregon sponsored event.”
The event, drawing in more than 30 students and community members opposing the Forum’s presence on campus, was organized as a basic question-and-answer discussion in which attendees could receive insight on the controversial group — but degrading comments and patronizing laughter interrupted the majority of inquirers.
The Forum, a self-proclaimed free speech group that hosts various speakers at its weekly meetings on campus, has spurred debate and opposition in the last years because of the alleged white supremacy and neo-Nazi tones of the speakers. Prominent Holocaust deniers and heated anti-Semites have presented at meetings, infuriating local Jewish groups and former University President Dave Frohnmayer.
The group’s Web site states: “The Pacifica Forum’s central purpose is to provide information and perspective on the issues of war and peace, militarism and pacifism, violence and non-violence. The Pacifica Forum resists efforts to silence this endeavor.”
The group, labeled as an official “white nationalist hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is allowed to meet on campus thanks to 94-year-old retired University professor, Orval Etter.
When asked by a former student, “Have you not crossed the line?” Etter remained silent, letting meeting leader Billy Rojas inform the crowd that Etter was “not in the right condition to reply.”
Past speaker Jimmy Marr, who evoked dispute in the previous Dec. 11 meeting for showing an anti-Semitic “documentary,” and who is known for calling Martin Luther King, Jr. a “moral leper and communist dupe,” broke into multiple Nazi salutes throughout the meeting, primarily while Jewish protesters spoke. Past speaker and self-titled white separatist Valdas Anelauskas said the salutes were “just a joke,” denying that the Forum is a neo-Nazi organization.
Rojas’ comment led to a slew of negative feedback from those in opposition, escalating into the chant: “Pacifica Forum off campus!”
Forum critic and member of the Anti-Hate Task Force, Michael Williams rejected the idea that the group was a free-speech haven.
“There is only one point of view covered here, and that point of view is anti,” Williams said. “This is scholarly? This is academic?”
Midway through the event, University senior Katie Hulse questioned a comment Anelauskas made last summer about late feminist Andrea Dworkin, in which he called her “too ugly to rape.”
Smiling, Anelauskas responded, “Don’t worry, you are not ugly.”
Joined by fellow shocked protestors, Hulse walked to the front of the room to where Anelauskas sat.
“Are you saying that you want to rape me?” Hulse asked through tears. “You’re making me uncomfortable. This is unacceptable.”
After Hulse left the room, Marr called her confrontation “theatrical,” adding to the uproar in the opposing crowd.
ASUO President Emma Kallaway attended the event and only spoke up after Hulse’s statement.
“I am observing that I have more upset students against your group than on your side,” Kallaway said. “I have just witnessed you insult a highly educated woman who is a valued member of our campus, and believe that you being here in our student union is a safety issue.”
Kallaway said the EMU is home to the University Women’s Center, Jewish Student Union, Black Student Union and LGBTQ student group, and it is supposed to be a safe area for the diverse student population.
“We don’t want you here in this building,” Kallaway said. “Get out of our safe student union.”
Anelauskas said the Forum would like to meet in its previous venue, a classroom in McKenzie Hall, but added that the group had a right to be there.
“This is a public space,” Anelauskas said. “Also, my daughter is a student here, which gives me some connection.”
His reply was not enough for the crowd of fuming student protesters, who left the meeting to discuss the rights of the Forum on campus with DPS officers.
The final voice of opposition from an unidentified student concluded the meeting on a solemn note: “I am a student at my campus and I fear you.”
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