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April 10, 2015 - Louder with Crowder
18:50
Girl Saves "American Sniper" At UofM! || Louder With Crowder
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Hey, hey, we are Muslim, but good for you!
You killed the bad ones!
They don't represent us!
And instead they're like, this is wrong, he had no right killing them.
Right.
Welcome to my show!
Again, we were talking about how we hate it when hosts just try and take over the guests.
So tell us the story.
It's a national story now.
American Sniper was going to play at University of Michigan.
take it from the top baby.
Alright so every Friday night the University of Michigan hosts UMICS which is a time for students to be able to come out it's an alternative to going out and drinking on campus.
Oh, very nice.
Yeah, it's a time they have events where they host movies, they'll do open buffets, anything for students.
And so this particular Friday, they were going to do American Sniper as the movie.
Unfortunately, there were a group of students who started a petition or a letter on Tuesday, and they reached out to the Center for Campus Involvement at the University of Michigan.
And the Center for Campus Involvement is the group that puts on this event.
And they said that they were going to be offended by the movie because Chris Kyle is a racist and because the movie perpetuates negative and misleading seriousness.
Did they actually say he was a racist?
Yes, they did in their letter and they said he was a mass murderer.
And so the university, I think within 24 hours of receiving the letter, canceled the movie.
And they said that because people were going to be offended and disturbed by it, that they were going to not show it.
And instead they were going to show Paddington Bear.
Which, by the way, nothing against Paddington Bear, but I think he hates America.
I love Paddington!
I thought it was actually a pretty funny move on the part of the University of Michigan.
We couldn't handle the emotions of American snipers, so instead we're going to go with Paddington Bear, a PG movie.
So, like a number of people, I was pretty upset when I heard about it, and I wanted to turn that anger into Turn it into action.
So use that passion for actually something good.
So I started a petition and I went into the Center for Campus Involvement and I asked them if they would reinstate the movie and they said they would not.
And I told them that I'd be back later and I'd have at least 300 signatures because that was what was on the original letter from this group who was opposed to the movie.
Now, this group who was opposed to the movie, was it a Muslim group or was it led by...
It was led by the Muslim Students' Association and a number of Muslims who signed the movie.
Here's my point here, okay?
Now, it would seem to me that if you're a Muslim...
You would want to distance yourself from the terrorists that Chris Kyle killed.
Yeah, exactly.
Like you should be going, yeah, yeah, hey, hey, we are Muslim, but good for you!
You killed the bad ones!
They don't represent us!
And instead they're like, this is wrong, he had no right killing them.
Right.
You would think they'd want to distance themselves from ISIS, from ISIL, from Al-Qaeda.
Groups like that, terrorist groups, and denounce them and say that these groups are actually spinning their religion and making it into something that it's not.
And instead they're denouncing people like American soldiers like Chris Kyle who have fought for their right to even be able to petition the student government and to petition the Center for Campus Involvement.
And it's pretty scary when you think about it.
Oh, yeah.
Well, what's crazy, like you said, it was led by a Muslim, but I'm sure a lot of people who signed on weren't Muslim.
And in Muslim countries, those people, their opinion would mean nothing.
They don't get to sign on under Sharia law.
Like, hey, I'm going to sign this petition.
Go away.
Go away.
You converted.
You're lucky we don't kill you.
Sorry, listen, I am the one who is horribly discriminatory, not our lovely guest, Rachel Jankowski.
So you...
And then unrelated, the U of M football coach, who's obviously this major celebrity, said, we're going to be watching it anyway.
They did an about-face.
Now they're showing both.
But a big part of that was you got those 300 signatures.
How hard was it for you to get those signatures on campus?
Oh, absolutely not at all.
So we started the petition, a group of students, around, I think, 10 in the morning.
We had 300 signatures within the first few hours.
We got up to almost 600 signatures, and that was by the time that Coach Harbaugh came out.
And said that he would be showing American Sniper to the football team, and he's proud to be an American, and he's proud of Chris Kyle, and if you don't like it, then so be it.
And I think at that point, we actually never reached out to him.
He took it upon himself to make a statement on this issue.
And at that point, I think that's when the university realized they really screwed up.
And I was actually pretty impressed with the university, because they came out and admitted that they made a mistake.
They apologized for it, and they reinstated the movie, so I was pretty happy with that.
That is pretty sweet.
Yeah.
And actually, have you seen American Sniper yet?
Oh yeah, of course.
It's a great movie except for the fake baby.
I know.
You cannot get around that one.
It seems like last minute the script supervisor is going, Crap!
Fake baby!
He just got a cabbage patch.
I think they had enough money for it.
Clint Eastwood's got money, so come on.
Terrible call.
The one thing about Clint Eastwood is what he does better than anyone is he brings out great performances.
Yes, he does.
And that's because as an actor, that's how I started one take.
I mean, I was on a film set one time where the guy would do 15 takes because his background was director of photography.
And so for them, he's looking at the...
You've got to get the focus of the lens right, and he doesn't even care what's going on with the actors.
And so, like, I had a scene where I had to cry, and I was supposed to be very emotional.
And by the time you look at the film, it's not that scene anymore, because he can't do it more than once.
Anyway, off track.
So this is happening on university right now.
Is it okay in me sort of outing you as you lean to the right?
Oh, yeah, that would be correct.
Okay.
I don't want to...
No, I mean, it's pretty obvious, I think.
How hard is it for you to be on a campus like U of M? So I went to the university for undergrad as well as for law school.
I'm in my second year of law school at the University of Michigan, so it's been six years.
I think Ann Coulter did too.
Yeah, she did.
So this is my sixth year at the university.
I've been pretty active in politics since I was here.
I was the college Republican president a couple years ago.
I've been involved with Young Americans for Freedom for that amount of time as well.
And so it's difficult, I'm not going to lie, but it's wonderful when we have the university community and the alumni community, who is just astronomical in size, and they come out and they support groups like us.
The outpoint of support that the alumni community have given us, especially during this petition, has just been unbelievable.
And so when we have all these alumni coming in, calling the university, telling them they're not going to donate another dime because they cannot believe their alma mater is doing this kind of stuff, it's been amazing.
But it's generally probably more alumni than professors.
Yes, definitely.
So professors, especially in the undergraduate program, are much more left-leaning.
They're very intolerant of anything that's outspoken.
Do you ever fear?
I know I did, but I was also in Montreal, which is a socialist province, so it's expected.
We don't have conservatives.
We have liberals and we have liberal separatists.
So this was my case, but do you ever fear speaking up for your grades' sake?
So in undergrad, that was definitely a thing.
I know for sure I've been – my grades have definitely taken a hit because of it.
Maybe not so much in law school.
In law school, it's a lot different in terms of the ability to speak out.
But in undergrad, I think it's pretty common at the University of Michigan and at other public universities – For students not to be able to say what they want to say.
For instance, I'm sure you've heard this story about Professor and Dean Susan Douglas.
She wrote the I Hate Republicans column.
Naturally, we all do.
Right.
And so I think it's hard for kids to be able to speak out in a class like that or express anything that might be out of line with her opinion because they're so worried about what's going to happen with their grades.
It's happened to me.
I know for sure I've taken a hit.
And it's really unfortunate that People have been stifled.
They're not allowed to speak out in an academic setting where you're supposed to be hearing differences of opinion.
You're supposed to be educating yourself on these issues, but you can't actually get both sides of the story, and it's extremely unfortunate.
Well, there you go.
Rachel Jankowski was born a poor black woman.
We will be back on Louder with Crowder after this break, which Fun Dip is not even ready for, because we want her to be able to wrap this up in a nice bow for us, and we'll be seeing you out there tonight at the showing.
Rachel Jankowski, Louder with Crowder.
World exclusive!
Exclusive!
Exclusive!
We're back with our wonderful, lovely guest, Rachel Jankowski, the hero who got American Sniper back on the U of M campus.
She's nodding her head no.
Like, I'm not trying this false humility.
I'm not the real hero.
It's Chris Kyle.
That's right.
That's right.
It's Chris Kyle.
Don't call me.
What's always funny is when nobody, you know, someone comes in and goes, don't call me a hero, folks.
And you're like, clearly nobody did.
The only one.
Fondip does that every morning.
He walks in.
Do not call me a hero.
Fondip leaves.
Order me a hero.
Order me a hero.
So, Rachel, you seem like you've done this before.
Have you done a lot of radio?
Oh, I've been on the radio a few times.
There's been a lot of controversy at University of Michigan, so of course.
This is true, and they don't like me there.
I'm not surprised at all.
They don't like me at all.
We actually had one guy last video, we did the free speech video, tried to complain that he was going to get it removed from YouTube.
What's funny is it was in the free speech video, and it was the guy who was actually reasonable, who was like, I don't think these kids do their research, and they don't know what they're talking about, and these words don't seem offensive to me.
Obviously, we edit all videos, but we don't edit people who are conservative to look liberal or liberal to look conservative.
And he was like, I'm going to have my lawyer on retainer.
And we were like, this was a public location.
Right.
You agreed to do it.
Yeah, and you agreed to do it.
First off, even if you don't agree to do it, we can tape you.
And you agreed to do it.
So it's always weird when you do that stuff, man.
People just complain at university.
Like you said, they're so...
You were thinking of actually what?
Giving out what tonight?
Pacifiers or blankets.
Anything.
To represent?
To represent the coddling of the University of Michigan because we can't handle anything over PG. You know, Paddington Bear.
It's good enough.
Paddington Bear.
I mean, I don't...
It's going to offer a great dialogue.
Come on.
Yeah, Paddington Bear.
Talk about, I don't know, English bears or something.
Well, the necessity of a raincoat.
That's true, especially here with all this rain.
Well, the acid rain because of global warming.
You're right.
So it's all coming back, fracking.
Let's blame fracking.
I have not seen Paddington Bear the film.
I have not either.
I am willing to bet.
Fundip, she can't hear you, no headphones, so let's keep your dialogue to a minimum.
I love that movie!
Get her car service to get her back to the campus going.
Paddington Bear, I've never seen it, okay?
You can tweet me, folks, at S. Crowder, if you have questions for Rachel.
I would bet dollars to donuts.
Paddington Bear probably has some environmental message.
There might be.
Or anti-business message.
Maybe.
Maybe.
But I actually just think it was the university having a good time, just saying, hey, look, if you can't handle it, we'll just give you this PG movie, family fun entertainment, go for it.
So you think it was a screw you from the university?
I don't know.
I think it's a little funny.
I don't know.
Maybe it wasn't.
Maybe that's what they wanted to show.
But it seems a little ironic.
Yeah, I don't know why they would pick Pat.
Well, there is the Build-A-Bear thing going on.
So maybe they try to tie it into the Build-A-Bear.
Maybe.
I'm not sure.
Maybe they're just horrendous people.
There's always a possibility.
I mean, we were talking about this today.
Do you feel on campus with young liberals?
I mean, how old are you?
23.
Okay, so we're not actually that far in age.
No.
I'm 27.
When I speak at Young America's Foundation, which is where you do work with them?
Yeah, so I used to intern for Young America's Foundation, and now I'm an advisor to the Young Americans for Freedom at the University of Michigan.
Okay, there you go.
So folks, Young America's for Freedom, support her work.
Look them up.
And the one thing I've noticed, and you tell me from wrong, does it seem like young liberals now are so aggressive?
Yeah, I mean, especially on university campuses, I think, especially at the University of Michigan, it's such an activist campus.
It always has been.
And so they feel like they have free reign to do whatever they want.
And the university tends to kowtow to them.
And it's pretty unfortunate because that's when freedom of speech is stifled.
So when groups like this go out and they say that this video shouldn't be shown because it might be offensive, that's when it's pretty alarming.
And when President Schlissel, the new president at the University of Michigan, came in during his inauguration, he had talked about this.
He talked about how he wanted openness of dialogue.
He wanted people to actually see the other side of things because it might actually instead of offending people, it might actually start a dialogue.
And so I was really excited when he came in as president.
And so it's kind of been disappointing to see so many of these stories come out lately that seem to stifle freedom of speech, freedom of expression.
And so it was really great that the university came out and actually backtracked on this one.
I always say this, and you can correct me if I'm wrong.
I know it was true for me, again, being raised in a socialist province.
Do you feel like conservatives, because they're constantly swimming upstream and fighting, put it this way, it's really easy to be a liberal in college, right?
For sure.
It's just the default position of your professors, everything you watch, all the music you listen to.
Do you feel like conservatives, and I know there's going to be some bias here, do you just feel like they're more informed on the actual issues than liberals on campus?
I think they have to be informed.
In order to actually form an opinion, they're not going to be indoctrinated in the classroom, which is what happens at these universities.
It's so much liberal indoctrination.
So it's very easy to kind of just fall in with the rest of the crowd, hear something and just kind of take it as truth, which is what was so scary about this petition.
Going back, this letter that they sent said Chris Coll is a racist and he's a mass murderer.
And if you take that as true and you do not denounce it at all, it just seems like that's the truth.
Was this written by the Muslims?
This was written by them, yes.
And it was sent into the university and the university didn't say anything against it.
Again, that's so telling to me.
Chris Kyle wasn't a racist.
Chris Kyle was anti-Islamic terrorist.
So for them to say he's racist is to put all Muslims, all, I guess, Arabs in the same plane, on the same level as Islamic terrorists.
They're basically saying we identify enough with Islamic terrorists that it's offensive to us.
That, to me, is kind of nutty.
Yeah, it's a little scary.
So I would think you'd want to distance yourself from those radicals and actually denounce them rather than people like Chris Kyle.
Yeah, it's pretty crazy to me.
I mean, I've never read anything...
Chris Kyle liked to tell stories, you know, what Marines or Navy SEALs don't, but I've never seen anything from him that was outwardly racist.
I mean, you know, there are plenty of, obviously, black people in his divisions, platoons.
I don't know the exact terminology, but...
You have the right to your own opinion.
You don't have the right to your own facts.
And so if you want to say that, you can.
But the university should not be accepting that as truth.
And that was what really bothered me.
Well, this is why I say you're a hero.
And I say it kind of obviously semi-facetiously, but not really.
Because if you didn't do this, right?
You're lucky you have a coach there who's got a brass pair now.
Probably wouldn't have happened before this coach.
If you didn't do this, right?
That Chris Kyle's a racist.
We don't want this movie being shown, accepted as fact by the university.
Nothing would have happened.
It would have stayed the same way.
And all students would assume, right, by proxy, well, if the university endorses this letter and statement, it must be true.
And then they go on the rest of their life thinking Chris Kyle's a racist.
Yeah, it's not that they necessarily endorsed it.
It's that they just never did anything to speak out against it.
Or that they never said, we're not accepting this letter as truth, but we're going to cancel the movie for whatever reason that they wanted to.
And it's really concerning.
And what really concerns me even more is that There are an even smaller minority on this campus, and it's the veterans.
And to sit there and kind of not say anything, it makes them feel as if they're unwelcome on this campus.
We had actually a vet go in and speak to the university about it, and they actually said they had never even thought about that opinion.
And that's what really bothered me, because I'm like, these people went and fought for this country for your right to speak, for your right to show this movie, and you don't even think about their opinion, how it might affect them.
And, I mean, they need to be honored, and it's really unfortunate that it happened.
It is unfortunate.
And what's more unfortunate is, I mean, I don't want to say more, they're equally unfortunate, is that that really is, we use the word narrative and it's often overused in politics.
But that narrative is allowed to be set if the university doesn't even so much as say, hey, we'll acknowledge your request to not play the film, but to call him a racist is inaccurate.
We need to correct this.
They didn't do anything like that.
And like you said, you can only have so much of that day in and day out on a campus.
Where that happens, where all liberals, all professors are liberals and it can affect your grades, where every single protest is liberal, where every single film and obviously the media and entertainment industry is liberal before you just start taking that as default.
And that's what concerns me.
There really isn't another voice at the table.
And if you look at the American public, how successful American Sniper was.
I mean, there's a huge divide, not only between politicians, but it seems like academia and average America.
And most of these Americans, you know, they've gone to college, but they've moved on, they've become conservative.
Do you notice, like, let's say when you go back home, and we don't have a lot of time, but you go back home to your family, that it's like there's school life, and this is the opinion, and then there's...
America, and it's kind of divided?
Oh, absolutely.
I think Ann Arbor is a little bubble, and the University of Michigan is a little bubble.
And when these students go out into the real world, they're going to be completely shocked.
I don't think they're going to be able to handle jobs in their life, because if they're so shaken up about a movie that they were not even required to see, if they didn't like it, they didn't have to go.
If they're that bothered by it, how on earth are they going to be able to cope in the real world?
I'm not sure.
It's...
It's scary.
It's scary the university is trying to coddle these children until they're, what, 22 years old and they graduate and then throw them out in the real world?
I mean, how old are they?
Well, they don't even want them.
They want them to stay in their parents' plan until 26.
Yeah, that's true.
There's a syndrome now called second adolescence where people, you know, they used to go on and have families at my age and get married.
Yeah.
Get a job.
Get a job.
And now people are just partying until, you know, college for a lot of people has four years of glorified alcoholism.
But now that goes well into the 30s with people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's scary.
And do you see that?
How do you see that changing?
How do I see...
Or what can people do to change it?
I mean, I think that people need to expose themselves to other viewpoints.
And if we're on a campus...
Not the kind of exposing themselves Fundip does on the subway.
If we're on a campus that preaches diversity, then students should actually be exposed to diverse ideas.
That's where groups like Young Americans for Freedom come in.
They bring in speakers like you, Stephen Crowder, or they can bring in...
The alternative viewpoint so that students can actually be exposed to something that's not what they hear every day in class.
And so I think it's going to be hard for people to go out and actually do something on their own, but we're glad that we have groups like this that alumni will support those groups and we ask that you Absolutely.
And we talked about that in the video.
On campus, they want all different kinds of diversity, except for that of intellectual diversity.
Rachel Jankowski, we will see you later this evening.
Thank you so much for coming on.
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