Velshi: Muting the voice of your opposition is not victory. Debate is.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer prize winning journalist, was denied tenure at UNC after the Board reportedly bowed to conservative criticism over her work. Democracy relies expressly on the ability to form an opinion and express it. Which is why what happened this week to Hannah-Jones is so troubling. Instead of thanking her for broadening our corpus of historical knowledge, Conservatives have since been on a crusade to silence the work. The very same group of people who boast of being First Amendment champions and complain about “cancel culture” are, in fact, those doing the canceling. Free Speech is not free speech just for those who validate your world view. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to agree with it. But you can’t erase it.