The College Fix’s recent exclusive report on a student who filed a bias report against his dorm roommate for watching a Ben Shapiro video is making headlines. Shapiro himself discussed it on his radio program Monday, and more recently Fox News’ “The Five” talked about the article and its implications.
From our report, the details of which were obtained through a public records act request:
One evening last September, a Michigan State University student awoke from his nap to see his roommate sitting at his computer. There was a video playing, and the student realized his roommate was watching a video of conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.
The newly awoken student then took to his own computer to file a complaint with the administration’s bias reporting system against his roommate for watching the Shapiro video.
“Ben Shapiro is known for his inflammatory speech that criticizes and attacks the African American community,” the student wrote in his report against his roommate. “I thought hate had no place on MSU’s campus yet MSU has roomed me with someone who supports hate speach [sic].”
Shapiro is a popular conservative pundit whose appearances on college campuses are frequently accompanied with protests by liberal students.
In response to the complaint, the university tasked an investigator to look into the matter, who was told to work for a “room change if the claimant would like one.”
Several panelists on “The Five” agreed it’s an example of a growing tattle-tale culture that exists on college campuses today.
“This is the type of thing that happens in dictatorships or former Soviet Union days, where you would snitch on people in order to gain favor with a group, or in this case the government, so that you would be protected later on,” Dana Perino said. “This is not government sponsored, obviously, but it’s the same type of behavior.”
Indeed, The College Fix article detailed how the Shapiro report was just one of 35 filed with Michigan State’s “Public Incident” website in the fall semester of 2018, and many of those complaints were based on only based on the briefest of interactions:
· Someone said the word “nigga” on an Instagram post; the person was found not to be connected with MSU.
· A discarded game of “hangman” was left on a whiteboard in a residence hall; the word “SOUTH” was the last one played.
· An MSU student posted a Snapchat video in which he says “I hate white people.”
· An MSU student found an Instagram photo where some young women were debating whether one of them looks “Indian” in the comments section. The women were not connected to MSU.
· A student complains twice in three days that someone posted a cartoon making fun of liberals in a residence hall and it offended her.
· A student used a residence hall list to e-mail her political beliefs to an entire dorm.
· One staff member overheard another staff member asking someone, “have you ever been to Africa?” and both staffers laughed. When confronted, the two staffers said they were simply quoting the 1997 teen movie “Good Burger.” The offended staffer said there was no such line in the movie “Good Burger,” and the discussion ended with one of the parties threatening to “kick those mother fuckin asses.”
The article is one of a series of exclusive College Fix reports about bias reporting systems on campuses across America:
University of Oregon: Bias report filed against professor for defending Brett Kavanaugh
Portland State University: Making jokes at Portland State gets you reported to its bias response team
SUNY-Binghamton: Off-campus road rage incident reported to university’s ‘Hate or Bias’ system
University of Florida: Recent bias complaints filed at U. Florida cite a grumpy professor, a racist Snapchat, and a crass joke
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