FIX EXCLUSIVES
‘Racism and xenophobia at its peak,’ complaint says
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign affiliates reported Young Americans for Freedom to the bias team around 50 times for hosting conservative commentator Elisha Krauss, according to public records obtained by The College Fix.
The Fix recently obtained Bias Assessment and Response Team reports via a public records request with the university. The reports, numbering around 200, cover the fall 2023 semester.
A staffer reported the YAF chapter to the bias team for its event called “Gaza Hates Gays & Gals” event with Krauss on Nov. 28, 2023. Most of the reports do not list the affiliation of the reporter.
The report said the event name “is racism and xenophobia at its peak” and is “discrimination” because it implies “people of Gaza and from Gaza hate women and people of the LGBTQIA+ community.”
The event “dangerously ‘pink-washes’ the ongoing genocide in Gaza and takes a hateful stance against the Palestinian people.”
“‘Pink-washing aims to focus on Palestinian homophobia, marking Palestinians as ‘less civilized,’” the staff member wrote. It also “normal[izes] Israeli policies of apartheid and military occupation.”
“Pink washing subsequently highlights the Zionist agenda to erase Palestinians altogether, as they are not representing Palestinians as a multi-dimensional society with a just struggle for freedom,” the report states.
Submitted complaints described Krauss as “racist and homophobic,” “hateful,” and a “known bigot.”
Some reports encouraged the university to “stand against the racist, homophobic sentiments promoted on campus.”
Others said the event was “anti-Arab.” Most put the desired action to be taken by the university in response to their complaint as “other,” indicating none of the available actions were considered enough. Some complaints described the event as “dangerous.”
Krauss, in emailed comments to The College Fix, said her event discussed the “horrors” of the October 8, 2023 terrorist attack on Israeli civilians by Hamas.
She said the reports reveal “that the Left and higher education has ‘won’ the narrative because they have made words equal to physical violence and the people who speak words others might disagree with as an assault.”
And they have succeeded in doing this “while ignoring the true assault of innocents in the world.”
“Conservative, libertarian, and moderate students on campus are the most brave and well rounded individuals I’ve ever encountered,” she said.
“They’re not victims and are able to handle so much adversity and hate they will graduate and excel at life beyond their socialist/anti women/anti Israel/anti free speech peers because they’ve been dealing with adversity for their entire college experience,” she said, “So, whatever the world throws at them will be easy. I’d say to campuses and those students who are weak whiners that life is gonna keep getting tougher and most of the time the only person they can blame is themselves.”
The university has not responded to a request for comment on any actions taken in response to the reports as well as questions about free speech on campus.
This is not the only time University of Illinois community members have tried to get a YAF speaker canceled.
In April 2024, activists submitted complaints to the campus bias team, calling for the cancellation of a planned speech by Daily Wire host Michael Knowles.
“Allowing him to speak on campus creates unsafe environments for LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff,” one person wrote, as previously reported by The College Fix.
“This should not be allowed,” the unknown reporter told the University of Illinois Campus Belonging team, referencing Knowles’ “hate-filled rhetoric around LGBTQ+ people.”
“Allowing him to speak on campus creates unsafe environments for LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff,” the reporter said, referencing the event.
Another person said the Daily Wire speaker has “a known history of discriminating against trans people.”
The complaint is apparently in reference to a speech Knowles gave at the Conservative Political Action Conference where he called for “transgenderism” to “be eradicated.”
The student said, “if there’s anything you can do to stop this event from happening and letting this hateful person come onto our campus, I would love to talk more about it.”
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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A poster for the University of Illinois YAF event; UIUC YAF/Instagram
