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THE CHICAGO MAROON - FEBRUARY 6, 2018
Events 2/6–2/8 Today 2018 Coase Lecture: The Behavioral Law & Economics of Happiness Room II, Law School, 12:15–1:15 p.m. In order to understand how legal rules will influence behavior, it is thus vital to understand how those rules will affect happiness. Professor John P. Wilson will give the lecture. Lunch will be provided. Teach-In: Reparations, CBA, and the University Trophy Lounge, Bartlett Dining Commons, 6–7:30 p.m. Supporters of the campaign for a community benefits agreement for the Obama Presidential Center and advocates for reparations by the University of Chicago come together to draw a link between their causes. Wednesday
Alex Kong
Advocates and opponents of Bannon’s invitation turned out Friday to make their views heard. Read more at chicagomaroon.com.
Envisioning the Future of American Religious Leadership Common Room, Swift Hall, 12–1:15 p.m. Eboo Patel, an advocate for interfaith partnerships, will speak alongside Divinity School Dean Laurie Zoloth and Dean of Students Josh Feigelson. Bring $5 to pay for a vegetarian meal. Thursday Gail Lukasik: White Like Her 57th Street Books, 5500 South Shore Drive, 6–7:30 p.m. An author and academic discusses her discovery that her mother chose to pass as white in the Jim Crow South. See more events and submit your own at chicagomaroon.com/events.
Support Our Advertisers Page Three: Submit your book collection to the Brooker Prize by March 16 to win a $1000 or $2000 prize. Attend the Lumen Christi Institute’s lecture on “The Moral Theology of Aquinas: Is it for Individuals” by Father Wojciech Giertych, the Theologian to the Pontifical Household. Third Floor Lecture Hall, Swift Hall, February 8, 4:30 p.m. Page Seven: Eat at Jimmy John’s, with a Hyde Park location at 1519 E. 55th Street open from 9 a.m.–10 p.m. If you want to place an ad in T he M aroon, please email ads@chicagomaroon.com or visit chicagomaroon.com/pages/advertise.
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Several Dozen Students Turned Out for Town Hall Continued from front
Cottrell. The SG Executive Slate co-hosted and moderated the town hall. Zingales opened the town hall by stressing his intention of understanding the altright movement, rather than legitimizing or promoting Bannon’s controversial viewpoints. “There were two souls in the Trump movement,” Zingales said. “There were the billionaire souls and the populist souls, and Bannon represented the populists.” He described Bannon as “able to interpret and understand a feature of the American people that we academics missed” and indicated the importance of holding Bannon accountable for “his flirting with racists.” Zingales referred to his experience growing up in 1970s Italy, during the time of the Red Brigades, a left-wing terrorist group that carried out political murders. “The Red Brigades survived and thrived,”
he recounted, “up until the rest of the political spectrum drew a line and said: ‘It’s one thing to be leftist. It’s another thing to shoot [people].’” The professor also emphasized a difference between extremist beliefs and extremist violence. “There is a line within freedom of speech,” he said. “[A]nd there is a line outside [it]—that is, hate crime and violence. That should not be tolerated.” Several students at the town hall expressed the belief that Bannon falls on the side of hate speech. One student quoted from a deposition in Bannon’s divorce proceedings, in which his wife claimed he made anti-Semitic remarks. “I think [these are] exactly the kind of things that I’m collecting to ask him to respond to,” Zingales replied. “He said that we’re not an economy, we’re a people. What I want to know is, who is in this ‘people’?
I’m an immigrant with a strong accent, so I probably don’t fit into his definition of ‘people.’” Zingales also addressed a question on whether he would invite someone like Hitler to speak. “Would I have invited Mao [Zedong], for example, to the University?” he asked rhetorically. “Probably yes. Mao killed more people than Hitler and Stalin together, but I would have a conversation with him, yes.” Zingales referenced an Italian interview in which Hitler made anti-Semitic results before his rise to power. “It would have been helpful if more people had seen early on what Hitler was made of.” Zingales welcomed student input for the upcoming Bannon event, and asked for suggestions on how to minimize potential counter-protests and violence. He mentioned the possibility of holding an open call for a student to co-moderate the debate with him.
Professor Declined Invite to Debate Bannon BY EUIRIM CHOI MANAGING EDITOR
University of Chicago political science professor Cathy Cohen was invited to debate former Breitbart Executive Chairman Steve Bannon, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The invitation, extended by Luigi Zingales—the Booth professor who invited Bannon to campus— was turned down. According to the sources, Zingales decided to invite Cohen, a scholar whose research interests include black politics, because he thought that she could make up for his self-admitted ignorance, as a native Italian, of racial issues in America at the debate and more effectively challenge Bannon. Two of the sources claimed they heard Zingales say that Cohen expressed disinterest toward participating in a debate. When asked whether she was invited by Zingales, Cohen did not deny the invite and told The M aroon that she would never participate in such an event. “Let me be clear: I, along with many faculty, staff and students across campus staunchly oppose the invitation to have Steve Bannon speak on campus,” she said. “I would never consider legitimizing such an event with my participation.” In a statement to T he M aroon, Zingales confirmed that he had reached out
to Cohen and other faculty because he felt that it was important to have multiple perspectives represented at the debate. “The topics of globalization and immigration cannot be seen only from an economic perspective,” he said. “For this reason, I feel it is important to have a range of perspectives represented at the event. To this purpose I reached out to Prof. Cohen and many other members of the faculty.” The sources learned about Cohen being invited after attending a breakfast meeting Friday morning between Zingales and eight student representatives of four major campus organizations—J Street, UChicago College Democrats, UChicago Young Democratic Socialists of America, and Student Government (SG)—at a private room in the Quadrangle Club. Dean of Students Michele Rasmussen was also in attendance as a moderator. The meeting, which Zingales said was prompted by a protest in his class earlier this week, lasted more than an hour and involved a talk by the professor followed by a discussion where students had the opportunity to ask him questions. During the meeting, Zingales defended his decision to invite Bannon, saying that the former chief strategist in the Trump White House could speak to the significant segment of Americans who voted for Donald Trump. Zingales also cited his personal expe-
rience with the attempts to suppress free speech that accompanied the rise of radical parties in Italy, his home country, to explain why he strongly believed in Bannon’s right to speak. Zingales also dismissed the prospect of disinvitation, arguing that he thought it would allow Bannon to be seen as a victim. The sources said that students in the room pushed back on Zingales by saying that they mainly opposed Bannon’s invitation because they thought his visit would be harmful to members of the University and local community—not because they questioned his right to speak. The students said that they feared, in particular, that an event on campus featuring Bannon would draw white supremacists and fascists to Hyde Park, leading to violence and disruption. Fourth-year and SG President Calvin Cottrell, who was in attendance, suggested that the Bannon debate be held outside of Hyde Park to make the event less disruptive. He proposed the Gleacher Center, the Booth School’s downtown campus, as an option. In response, Zingales said he could not yet commit to a particular location, as the administration was handling the logistics and security of the event. A longer version of this article can be found online at chicagomaroon.com.