A professor at Michigan Technological University has been removed from his position after being caught on an audio recording berating conservative students as “childish, stupid, homophobic, dumb, racist twits” for celebrating the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
On November 9, the student activist organization Young Americans for Freedom — which is part of the Young America’s Foundation (YAF) — celebrated the 34th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. As part of this celebration, the group created their own “wall” to display on the Michigan Tech campus.
Far-left activists were outraged over the celebration — vandalizing the wall with spray paint and ultimately tearing down the display, claiming it was “hate speech.”
As the tearing down of the Berlin Wall was one of the key events that started the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, one “socialist sympathizer” on campus was so outraged that they told YAF members to “kill themselves,” according to the group.
One “socialist sympathizer” even told YAF members to “kill themselves,” the group reported.
Leftist protester vandalizes and tears down Berlin Wall display put up by Michigan Tech YAF chapter pic.twitter.com/RwMHMLVrgl
— YAF (@yaf) November 11, 2023
Meanwhile, Michigan Tech professor Dr. Carl Blair was caught on an audio recording berating the YAF students.
“For those of you who weren’t aware of it [YAF’s project], good. For those of you who were aware of it, it was childish, stupid, homophobic, dumb, racist twits. That’s the polite version,” the professor told students in the recording, which was published by YAF.
Michigan Tech professor caught ranting about the YAF chapter's Berlin Wall display:
"It was childish, stupid, homophobic, dumb, racist…They can go off and pretend, 'Oh we're victims!…We have a constitutional right to be insulting, violent and threatening'…They're idiots." https://t.co/1NS1NzdU3u pic.twitter.com/cqTaFU5Tz2
— YAF (@yaf) November 14, 2023
The New Guard, which is YAF’s news outlet, contacted Blair for comment on the matter prior to the news of his removal.
“I stand by my words, and I have nothing else to say to you,” he told them via phone before hanging up.
However, YAF obtained an email on Thursday suggesting that Blair had been replaced by the university following his tirade.
“As an institution with a strong research focus, Michigan Tech vigorously supports freedom of speech and academic freedom,” the university’s provost wrote in the email to students.
“We follow the Chicago Principles in this manner. With this, we expect an environment of respect and acceptance of diverse perspectives, perhaps most importantly within our classrooms. We regret this has not been your experience in this class this week,” the email continued.
The email also stated that Blair’s Friday class was canceled, and a different instructor would be taking over the class for the “remainder of the semester” after Thanksgiving break.
It is currently unclear whether the professor was suspended, terminated or just reassigned to a different class.
Andrew Keys, who serves as chairman of Michigan Tech’s chapter of YAF, celebrated the news in a statement, writing: “We’re very glad that the university is standing up for free speech and won’t back down even when professors go against it.”
