Even my bigoted critics deserve free speech

Freedom of speech is the foundation of any free society. It is always best to challenge or ridicule bad ideas, rather than leave them to fester. No Platforming and censoring opposing voices only leads them to thrive underground.

It is for that reason that I haven’t joined in the demands for academic Aysha Khanom to lose her job. Leeds Beckett University has cut ties with Khanom after an organisation she runs, the Race Trust, racially abused me on social media.

Earlier this year, I appeared on BBC One’s The Big Questions to discuss the state of racism in the UK. I spoke about how I have been racially abused for not holding the ‘correct’ opinions. In response, the Race Trust tweeted: ‘Does it not shame you that most people see you as a house negro?’

Khanom maintains that the ‘house negro’ tweet was not sent by her, though she accepts responsibility for it. Either she or someone at her organisation was clearly comfortable using such racist language in public. The good news is that the tweet was rightly challenged and ‘ratioed’ by the masses on Twitter.

Since then, Leeds Beckett University has stopped working with Khanom because she used ‘racist language’. The university also cited another tweet in which she used the word ‘coconut’. Now she is suing the university for breaching her right to free speech. Isn’t it funny how the woke left suddenly supports free speech whenever its free speech is under attack. Whatever happened to ‘freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences’?

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