Black Conservative Shouted Down For Speaking ‘Against Own People’

The usual insults and not listening to an opposing view.

Former NFL star and conservative commentator Burgess Owens was heckled and shouted down by students for allegedly speaking “against” his “own people” at a lecture last month.

Owens routinely speaks on leadership, especially within the black community, and the opportunities America can provide for young black men, touching on similar topics during his speech at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where he was hosted by Young Americans for Freedom.

While he was able to deliver his prepared remarks without incident, the audience repeatedly interrupted and insulted Owens during the question-and-answer portion of the talk, so much so that the moderator eventually had to shut it down.

In one case, after questioning Owens on his views of police brutality and the school-to-prison pipeline, both of which are issues Owens deals with in his work with the One Heart Project, the audience member proceeded to ask him “what was your name again?”

“Burgess Owens,” he replied, to which the student commented that she “thought it was Tom,” in reference to Uncle Tom, before storming out of the auditorium while Owens quipped that “there goes our biggest problem.”

“The minute you start calling names, you’ve already stopped the debate,” he continued. “You’re not looking for answers. You’re looking for ways of insulting, and that’s not how Americans do it.”

The next questioner proceeded to aggressively rip the microphone from the moderator’s hands, shouting at him while he attempted to hold on to it.

“I had the mic. You took the mic away from me. I’m talking. I’m asking a question,” the student complained as other demonstrators loudly backed him up.

He then proceeded to condemn Student Affairs for going “two-for-two” on bringing “xenophobic” people to campus who apparently speak against their own beliefs, saying that in addition to Owens, a Muslim woman came to campus and spoke “against her Islamic beliefs.”

When the moderator attempted to interrupt the student’s rant, the audience began shouting him down, with one woman screaming “let him finish!”

Owens attempted to address the audience member, but was repeatedly interrupted as the student protested that the mic was taken away from him.

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