George Floyd’s murder drove surge in academic censorship, free speech group says in report

The 2020 murder of George Floyd sparked a dramatic increase in efforts to punish college professors, scholars and speakers for “controversial speech” with petitions, sanctions and firings, according to a free speech advocacy group.

A total of 509 professors were punished in 2020-22 at universities such as Harvard and Stanford, while 571 were sanctioned in the 20 years before Floyd’s 2020 death in Minneapolis police custody sparked protests nationwide, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression reported Thursday.

The number of efforts to silence professors for speaking out about racial issues doubled from 2019 to 2020 and now accounts for more than half of all academic “cancel culture” efforts on the left and right, the Philadelphia-based group said.

“The report suggests a major reason for the spike is the murder of George Floyd in 2020, which led to a huge jump in scholars targeted for racial speech,” FIRE spokesman Alex Griswold told The Washington Times. 

The other topics drawing censure in recent years include transgender identity, the presidency of Donald Trump and the #MeToo movement, the group noted. 

The number of efforts to silence professors included 83 in 2017, 82 in 2018 and 87 in 2019, and jumped to 151 in 2020, 213 in 2021 and 145 last year, FIRE said.

The report found 52% of last year’s attempts came from the political left, 41% came from the political right and the remaining 7% involved “unclear/irrelevant” nonpolitical conflicts.

Almost two-thirds of 2022 censorship efforts resulted in universities sanctioning the professors in question, with 1 in 5 resulting in their firing.

Just 6% of those efforts accused a scholar of “contemptuous or malicious speech” intended to “offend, malign or endorse violence,” FIRE said. The group said that means most of the efforts targeted professors for expressing opinions about hot-button issues, violating their rights under the First Amendment.

“Cancel culture is particularly pernicious when it targets people charged with discovering and disseminating knowledge,” said Komi Frey, FIRE‘s director of faculty outreach and lead author of the report.

On racial issues, liberals have tried to censor scholars who speak out against affirmative action for enrollment and hiring. Conservatives have sought to stop professors from portraying American history as a narrative of systemic racism against Blacks.

In 2021, FIRE flagged the conservative student group Turning Point USA for targeting 61 mostly Black faculty over their comments on racial justice and other political topics in an annual “professor watchlist,” leading to some professors receiving hate mail.

Last year, Harvard University led the nation in attempted (23) and successful (12) sanctions of scholars. The Ivy League institution took first place last April, when it canceled a lecture on British Romanticism by feminist philosopher Devin Buckley, who had stirred outrage among leftist graduate students for her unrelated view that there are no “male women.” 

The university apologized for the invitation and publicly condemned Ms. Buckley, who student protesters had tagged as a trans-exclusionary radical feminist, or “TERF.”

The next-highest number of censorship attempts last year occurred at Stanford University (22); the University of California, Los Angeles (19); and Georgetown University (16). 

Meanwhile, the University of Florida led the country in the percentage of successful sanctions, punishing nine out of 10 accused academics.

In a pending lawsuit, FIRE claims the State University System of Florida has unconstitutionally limited free speech on its campuses, blaming a law that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last year to ban controversial race and gender teachings in classrooms. 

Still, most efforts by on-campus groups to sanction professors last year came from the political left. According to FIRE, that included 75% of “cancel culture” attempts led by undergraduates and 82% of those led by fellow academics.

By comparison, attempts by off-campus groups to sanction or fire professors mostly came from the political right, including 78% of efforts by the general public and 86% of those by politicians.

The Washington Times has reached out for comment to the universities FIRE flagged in the report.