By Lt Col. Allen West, USA ret
Former US Congressman
I have had the absolute pleasure and honor to be a speaker for the Young America’s Foundation (YAF), addressing college students for the past decade.
It is a duty of mine to seek out and impart conservative perspectives, insights, and knowledge on these campuses, supposedly a place for the free exchange of ideals.
I have lived a life of quite memorable experiences and acquired a great deal of knowledge that enables an opportunity to share principles and thoughts.
I am sure some of you may recall a viral video of a young female student at Northwestern University asking me if I identified as Black.
And then there was the episode at the University of Buffalo, where black students erupted in violence because I spoke of America, today, not being a racist nation; heck, that story was even carried in the United Kingdom.
Black Conservatives Banned
When it comes to the issue of race in America, Marxist leftists do not believe that Black conservatives have a First Amendment right to speak on the topic.
Only those that they choose are allowed to speak, and that includes white leftists, as if they are experts on the subject.
Or, white leftists find their usual suspects, the black overseers on their 21st-century economic plantation, such as Ibrahim Kendi, or that lady who came up with the 1619 Project nonsense, to be the leading voices on matters of race.
And, when all else fails, white leftists resort to the Granddaddy of race hustling, Al Sharpton…did he ever pay his IRS debt?
Consider the phenomenal Black conservative candidate running for Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. Here is a woman who legally immigrated to the United States of America from Jamaica, joined the US Marine Corps, was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, but who does the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) endorse in the race? Yes, you guessed it, the white leftist female candidate. Hmm, whatever happened to the content of character maxim of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?
And always remember that the NAACP was founded by white socialists who placed W.E.B. Dubois in charge, a man who was an elitist socialist and later an avowed communist who renounced his American citizenship.
Oh yeah, these white leftists created the NAACP in opposition to Booker T. Washington, the Father of Black conservatism, founder of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, and creator of the Negro Business League. Yes, some things just never change.
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University… Woke!
So, I find it interesting that this week, on Wednesday, I am scheduled to speak at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. I have spoken before at their East Coast University in Daytona Beach.
However, the leadership of the campus was threatening cancellation of the event, not because of safety concerns, which would be absurd.
Nope, they were cancelling the event because I, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and former Member of Congress, Allen West, was going to speak on DEI Being Racist.
Why did Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) allow the event to proceed?
Because it had to meet their censorship demands. Yes, a Black conservative, from the South, is not allowed to speak on DEI, but Kendi would have been allowed to, because I dare call it out for what it is.
The egregious nature of this whole kabuki theater was written about by YAF in this article.
According to an email from ERAU’s Molly Webb, the YAF chapter’s promotional materials cannot even include the fact that Lt. Col. West “speaks against DEI.” In order to be approved, according to the school administrator, any such references must be removed.
I’m including a screenshot of the email Molly Webb sent to the YAF Chapter president at ERAU, the young man is a former US Army paratrooper who was part of a group of students I led on a Normandy 81st anniversary of D-Day trip.
Molly Webb, as you can see, ended her email reminding us of her pronouns (she/her).
This is the same ERAU campus that sought to silence students, meaning conservative ones, who contradicted the insidious leftist delusion about multiple genders.
Conservative students were banned, yes, banned from making that assertion, which is factual science, unless you are Ketanji Brown-Jackson.
This is the same ERAU that sought to prevent a young woman I have interviewed, detransitioner Chloe Cole, from speaking on their campus.
Why Are Conservative Minorities So Threatening?
Why is it that white Marxist leftists fear conservative minorities so?
How can it be that Molly Webb feels herself superior to me and dictates what it is that I can discuss?
I am quite certain that if Kamala Harris were to want to come to ERAU and discuss how she prepares collard greens by washing them in a bathtub, that would be perfectly acceptable.
But, how dare a retired U.S. Army officer, combat veteran, with multiple academic degrees, who is Black, dare set foot on the campus of ERAU and think he will have a platform to objectively analyze the cultural Marxist Trojan horse known as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?
I have always stated that when leftists denigrate, demonize, and disparage others using certain monikers, it is because they are attempting to project onto others exactly who and what they are.
This Wednesday evening, I will be appearing on the campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. It will be my fourth time in Yavapai County.
If this seemingly leftist campus administration believes that it will deny my constitutional right of free speech, especially in the month of Veterans Day…well, that dog don’t hunt.
I hope to see Molly Webb there. Maybe she will ask me if I identify as Black? Especially since ol’ Joe “Autopen” Biden has already told me that I ain’t Black since I did not vote for him.
Sorry, Marxist leftists, my skin color does not dictate my intellectual capacity, nor my critical thinking skills and abilities of discernment.
Steadfast and Loyal.
Arizona university bans ‘DEI IS RACISM’ poster wording (The College Fix)
Students accuse Arizona university of censorship for banning anti-DEI poster (Arizona Republic)
Taylor Seely | Arizona Republic
Conservative students at a small, private university in northern Arizona are claiming censorship after the school prohibited the words “DEI IS RACISM” on a poster promoting a campus speaking event.
The Young Americans for Freedom chapter at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott wanted to advertise its Nov. 5 event hosting Allen West, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former Texas congressman. West planned to speak against diversity, equity and inclusion, a phrase that refers to a set of practices and principles that have become a political flashpoint for conservatives and the Trump administration in the president’s second term.
Young America’s Foundation, the national parent organization to Young Americans for Freedom, said the Prescott student group had secured approval for the event. But when the group submitted the poster for approval, a university employee rejected it.
The group’s leader, Benjamin Isbell, tried a second time, changing it to say: “What is DEI?” And instead of saying West would speak “against” DEI, the flyer said he would speak “about DEI.”
The university rejected it again.
Isbell tried a third version: “What is racism?” This time, West would speak “against racism.”
No dice.
For the fourth — and final — submittal, Isbell appeared to have had enough.
He submitted a flyer with large, red “CENSORED” labels covering the text. “This is a violation of free speech and is hostile to our free, democratic society,” the flyer read.
That design also was rejected.
The dispute reflects what Young America’s Foundation says is selective discrimination by Embry-Riddle. The foundation submitted a complaint to the U.S. Department of Education alleging discrimination against conservative students and viewpoints. The complaint is the group’s second against Embry-Riddle this year.
A spokesperson for the school told The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com he would look into the situation but did not respond to subsequent questions and multiple follow-up calls.
DEI flyer dispute leads to civil rights complaint
A screenshot of an email provided by the foundation shows an Embry-Riddle employee telling Isbell to make a series of edits to the flyer to secure approval.
Isbell would need to remove:
- The statement calling DEI “racism.”
- The statement noting the speaker’s opposition to DEI.
- The statements expressing West’s point of view that DEI “has often been used under the guise of promoting equality” but “actually does more harm than good, often resulting in reverse racism and lack of merit.”
After Isbell’s proposed changes were rejected, the foundation complained to the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
The Nov. 3 complaint claims the university is violating civil rights laws that protect against race, color, national origin and sex-based discrimination. The group also claims in the complaint that Embry-Riddle is violating executive orders from President Trump that ban DEI and “gender ideology.” The department should investigate the school, the group says, because the school accepts federal funding — roughly $62 million federal dollars, according to the school’s 2024 990 tax form.
The complaint says Embry-Riddle staff told Isbell in person, but not in writing, that the school could not approve the poster because of Trump’s anti-DEI executive order. The foundation said that assertion erroneously used “the administration’s own words decrying DEI as destructive as an excuse to ban dissent against DEI.”
The Arizona Republic could not independently verify the claim, and the university did not respond to questions about it.
Absent from the complaint is any formal assertion that the school violated students’ First Amendment rights. That’s likely because Embry-Riddle, as a private university, doesn’t have to guarantee students’ free speech rights.
“Legally speaking, the First Amendment protects us against the government (including public universities), and since private universities are not the government, legal rights pretty much depend on what they promise their students,” said Garrett Gravley, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free-speech advocacy group.
The university is, however, bound by federal laws, he said. But whether that means Trump’s executive orders apply to private schools is unclear. Trump’s executive order prohibiting DEI has faced scrutiny itself for free speech violations. A federal district court judge in February blocked it from taking effect, saying it was too vague and likely violated free speech rights; however, an appeals court overturned that ruling the next month.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has called on the Office for Civil Rights to clarify the rules for universities.
The university’s “Campus Expression Policy” recognizes students’ freedom of expression but says those rights “must be balanced by consideration for the health and safety of all members of the University community.”
“Debate and discussion over aspects of DEI happens daily on campuses across the country, and. Lt. Col. West has spoken at multiple colleges on this subject without issue. There is simply no compelling reason to silence such debates on a college campus, especially on health and safety grounds,” Gravley said.
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