Professor: You cited a list of statistics
in your talk, which you claim support
the idea that illegal immigrants are
dangerous or criminals.
Knowles: I cited a number of statistics
that show that they commit federal
crimes at a significantly higher rate
than native-born Americans, yes.
Professor: Okay, so what role do you
think that structural racism and
inherent bias has to play
in those statistics?
Knowles: I don't think that the people
who enter this country illegally are
forced to do so by some sort of
systemic racism. There's no systemic
American racist going down to
El Salvador and saying, "You better
get up and sneak into the United
States." And there's nobody in
the United States who forces people
who come here illegally to commit
crimes. I think the premise of this
question is actually quite offensive,
though it's a popular assumption,
which is that illegal aliens
somehow don't have free will. It's the
assumption that illegal aliens are
somehow morally uneducated,
they have no sense of right and wrong,
they have no ability to control their
emotions and their impulses.
This is, obviously, profoundly racist
and not true. We have free will.
We have the ability to do
what we want to do.
This is why, by the way, the majority of
Hispanic people in the United States
and Hispanic voters oppose illegal
immigration. The races are
exactly the same. The ethnicity is
exactly the same. The question of
crime is different because race
does not determine your criminality.
Professor: That's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying that people of color are
more likely to be convicted of crimes
unfairly than white people.
Knowles: They're more likely to
commit certain crimes, that's true.
I don't think that's because of their race.
I think that's because of aspects of
their free will and, perhaps, of culture.
Professor: That's not true.
I'm talking about...
Knowles: That is true.
What I just said is true.
Professor: I'm not quite sure where
you're getting your statistics from,
and you choose to interpet them...
Knowles: From the federal government.
Professor: And you choose
to interpret them in your own...
Knowles: From the Bureau of Justice
Statistics and the Department of
Homeland Security.
Professor: Can I talk? Is that okay?
Knowles: You said you didn't know
where I got my statistics from,
and I'm telling you
where I get them from.
Professor: It would have been nice if
you could have let me finish my
sentence. Anyway...
Knowles: I was answering your question.
[Students shouting in audience]
Professor: You are using your statistics
for your own agenda, and that's
your own prerogative.
Knowles: I'm citing statistics because
they're true.
Professor: I'm talking about the fact...
I'm on the faculty here. I also support
the protestor in the back.
Knowles: What do you support,
specifically? Do you think that
anti-immigrant rhetoric is
violent free speech?
Professor: Yes, because of
the reasons I'm talking about.
Knowles: You think that
speech is violence?
Professor: No, I think that...
Knowles: That's what that sign says.
Professor: The conversation that
you're having is oppressive.
Knowles: So I am oppressing
people by what I am doing?
So I am exerting violence
on people by my speech?
That's what the sign says,
and that's what you just said.
Professor: It contributes to...
Knowles: And the protestor
is saying that's exactly what I'm
doing, and she's saying that's
exactly what her sign means.
So that means that you,
a faculty member at
an American public university,
paid for by taxpayer dollars, are
conflating speech with violence.
Protestor: Your speech.
Professor: Yes. Speech can be
violent. What you are saying
contributes to systemic racism in
this country. It means that my
students of color are pulled over
and accused of stealing a car
when they did not.
Knowles: I'm not pulling anybody
over for stealing any cars.
Professor: I am not saying that
you personally did...
Knowles: I see many people of many
different races in this room.
They all seem to be doing just fine,
and I don't think any of them have
felt violence because they listened
to a lecture on basic facts about
our immigration system.
Protestor: [Unintelligible]
Knowles: The question was: have I
asked people in this room if they've
felt as though some violence has
been committed on them.
No I haven't asked, because no
violence has been committed on you...
[Audience cheering and applause]
Knowles: ...because violence is not
a subjective feeling. Violence
is an objective fact.
I can objectively gauge whether or not
someone has become violent.
The other day, I was at the University of
Missouri–Kansas City. Some protestor
attacked me with some weird chemical.
That was an objective act of violence.
But somebody disagreeing with me,
such as some people in this room
are doing, is not committing violence
on me. And I would say to you,
as a faculty member at a
taxpayer-funded university,
this is the foundation of liberal
education. If you cannot
understand that there is a difference
between speech and violence,
you don't understand anything that
undergirds the liberal arts or
liberal education. And that is a real
shame. And I say this with all respect
and with great distress for our
universities, if our teachers don't
understand the difference between
ideas and violence, between speech
and violence, then they are in no
position to educate the next
generation of Americans.
[Audience cheering and applause]
