Thread by @Katja_Thieme

An open letter/thread to @UWaterloo president Feridun Hamdullahpur; in response to his statement on the cancellation of LSOI's Faith Goldy event due to raised security fee of $28,500. 1/
uwaterloo.ca/president/blog…

In your statement you say: "We cannot shrink away from ideas that we do not like. We must hear them, understand where they are coming from and fight them passionately if we disagree with them. But, we must hear them. We cannot change minds and learn without first listening." 2/

Who is this "we"? None of the antifascist academics I've been working with in the public forum that is Twitter are shying away from any of Goldy's ideas. If anything, we've been bringing them to light, complete with critical commentary. 3/

"Who's Faith Goldy?," many ask us. And with links & sources, we tell them. "Why's what she says a problem?," they question. And whether they're sincere or not, we spell it out. Some hurl insults at us. But we keep doing all the listening & changing of minds we can handle. 4/

It takes a toll. 5/

That's my "we." 6/

And since the people included in my "we"--many of them academics, a good portion in contract positions or untenured, some from University of Waterloo--are clearly not the people included in your "we," Dr. Hamdullahpur, who is that "we" you're marshaling? 7/

Who of your "we" is going to go to that talk next time a fascist gets invited to campus, who of your "we" is going to do the work you say they should do? Are you and your administration personally going to be part of that work? 8/

Because if your uni gives white supremacists a platform from which to propagate their hate, you should be there in the first row asking those questions that will change white supremacist minds. You can't ask us to do any more of this tiring work than we've already been doing. 9/