Princeton University professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor issued multiple vile attacks against President Donald Trump in her May 20 commencement speech at Hampshire College, a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Taylor accused Trump of being a “racist, sexist megalomaniac.”
“The president of the United States, the most powerful politician in the world, is a racist, sexist megalomaniac,” Taylor said, according to a report by Campus Reform reporter Anthony Gockowski.
“It’s not a benign observation, but has meant tragic consequences for many people in our country—from terror-inducing raids in the communities of undocumented immigrants to his disparaging of refugees in search of freedom and respite,” Taylor also said during her speech.
One of the more interesting parts of the speech occurred when Taylor, perhaps without realizing it, suggested that the federal court decisions striking down Trump’s executive orders temporarily restricting immigration from several Muslim-majority nations were the result of political activism, not the application of the law.
“When Trump’s first illegal Muslim travel ban was attempted, thousands of ordinary people flooded the airports around this country,” Taylor said. “And because of those protests, and the defiance they represented, that ban was stopped—not once, but twice. It is not enough just to be outraged. Injustice has to actually be defied.”
Taylor also said Trump “empowered an attorney general who embraces and promulgates policies that have already proven to have had a devastating impact on black families and communities,” but it’s not clear what she was referring to specifically.
In 2016, Hampshire College made national headlines when the school lowered its American flag to half-staff in honor of the violence occurring in the wake of Trump’s November election. The flag was then burned the day before Veterans Day. The flag was later removed so that “racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and behaviors” could be examined, according to college President Jonathan Lash.
More than 1,000 veterans visited Hampshire college during Thanksgiving weekend to protest the school’s decision.
After outrage over the college’s decision to remove the flag reached a fever pitch, the school returned the flag to its rightful place in December.
Justin Haskins
