Georgetown University responds amid backlash to prof's 'white men' tweet, Twitter suspends account
Twitter suspended and removed verification from Georgetown University Distinguished Associate Professor Christine Fair’s account on Tuesday, following a string of tweets in which she suggested that white Republican senators “deserved miserable deaths while feminists laugh” and that people should “castrate their corpses and feed them to swine.”
A Twitter spokesperson told Campus Reform that the professor’s account was suspended in error the first time. The account was restored hours later and the professor wasted no time in further expressing her views on the platform.
[RELATED: Georgetown prof: White GOP senators in Kavanaugh hearing ‘deserve miserable deaths’]
”Fox News Failed to silence me. Thank you all for sending @Twitter messages of support. I do NOT and NEVER have condoned violence. My tweet, as I have explained, was an attempt to make YOU as UNCOMFORTABLE as I am using the language of the abuse I receive[d] by the hundreds,” Fair tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.
”And let’s be very clear: Fox News says it cares about ‘campus safety’ while DELIBERATELY stoking angry herds to threaten the very safety of the same. Fox News and its minions is a mouthpiece of this anti-woman, racist, xphobic, bigoted regime,” Fair added.
Not long after Fair’s account was restored, however, it was once again suspended. Twitter did not return a request for comment from Campus Reform when asked why the account was suspended, restored, and then suspended again.
Fair’s Twitter suspension followed a tweet she sent over the weekend in which she suggested that Republican senators “deserve miserable deaths.”
“Look at thus [sic] chorus of entitled white men justifying a serial rapist’s arrogated entitlement,” Fair tweeted on September 27, referencing a video of “Lindsey Graham’s tirade” during Thursday’s hearing with Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
”All of them deserve miserable deaths while feminists laugh as they take their last gasps. Bonus: we castrate their corpses and feed them to swine? Yes,” Fair concluded the tweet.
“GOP doesn’t care about women,” Fair tweeted a week earlier. “We knew this. Fuck them.”
[RELATED: Georgetown prof: ‘Kreepy Kavanaugh,’ ‘GOP doesn’t care about women...F*** them’]
Campus Reform contacted Fair following both tweets. She responded by personally attacking both reporters on her blog site, the “Tenacious Hellpussy.” She describes the page as “A NASTY WOMAN POSTING FROM THE FRONTLINES OF FUCKERY.”
In her post, “When ‘Aunt Lydia’ of Campus Reform Tried to Launch Another Harassment Campaign: This is what she got,” Fair compared a female Campus Reform correspondent to Aunt Lydia from the Handmaid’s Tale. Aunt Lydia is a female character in the novel and show who works for the men to help them abuse other women.
“And you, Aunt Lydia, are a potential victim of this war as well even though you shill for those persons and institutions who sustain it and seek to perpetuate it,” Fair said in the post. “Do you think your potential assailant will care that you enable the patriarchal structures that devalue our lives and the work we do and construct legal structures that privilege the attacker? Do you think complicit women and lousy men will be less likely to slut shame you because you are one of their paid-keyboards? No, Aunt Lydia.”
In a separate post, “When Campus Reform Tried to Bully Me: The ‘Reporter’ got This Response,” Fair accused another Campus Reform correspondent of “bullying” her in response to an email asking for clarification and comment regarding one of the professor’s tweets.
[RELATED: Georgetown called out for urging donations to left-wing groups]
“You know what you’ll never see? A room full of man-hating female (cis or trans) legislators sitting around a table discussing coverage for your Viagra, your Cialis, your prostate preventative care, your prostate cancer, your gynecomastia (moobs if you will) if it becomes cancerous, etc.” she wrote in response to a request for comment from Campus Reform.
Amelia Irvine, a senior at Georgetown University, responded to Fair’s conduct in a statement to Campus Reform.
“It’s laughable that Twitter recognizes that Christine Fair’s comments were outside the bounds of civil discourse, while Georgetown University refuses to do so,” Irvine said. “Why won’t Georgetown clearly tell professors and students that calling for violence against others is unacceptable?”
”Georgetown urges members of our community to engage in robust, but respectful dialogue,” a Georgetown spokesman told Campus Reform. ”While we protect speech and expression, we condemn uncivil and disrespectful discourse that is inconsistent with our values.”
“The views of faculty members expressed in their private capacities are their own and not the views of the University. Our policy does not prohibit speech based on the person presenting ideas or the content of those ideas, even when those ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable. While faculty members may exercise freedom of speech, we expect their classrooms and interaction with students to be free of bias and geared toward thoughtful, respectful dialogue.”
[RELATED: Georgetown advisor hopes Allie Stuckey has ‘#metoo moment’]
In a separate statement, Georgetown University President John DeGioia added “we can and do strongly condemn the use of violent imagery, profanity, and insensitive labeling of individuals based on gender, ethnicity or political affiliation in any form of discourse. Such expressions go against our values.”
Nicole Neily, president of Speech First, offered a different perspective. Neily recalled the fact that Georgetown has adopted a version of the Chicago statement, which states, in part, “it is not the proper role of a university to insulate individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive. Deliberation or debate may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the University community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or ill-conceived.”
Neily then added: “Were Dr. Fair’s comments offensive, unwise, and ill-conceived? Yes. Should she be censured, suspended, fired, or otherwise punished for them? I don’t think so.”
A spokeswoman for University of Detroit Mercy President Dr. Antoine Garibaldi, who serves on Georgetown’s Board of Directors, told Campus Reform that Garibaldi “would not be comfortable commenting [for the story] because this is a Georgetown matter.”
Editor’s note: Campus Reform encourages civil discourse and acknowledges professors’ First Amendment right to free speech. The purpose of this article, like any other, is to present the facts and allow our readers to form their own opinions.
Follow the authors of this article on Twitter: @Zach_Petrizzo & @abigailmarone
