The OC Blog Back Issues Our Mission Contact Us Masthead
Sudsy Wants You to Join the Oregon Commentator
 

The Student Insurgent: Sex trafficking is greater than or equal to hate speech.

The Student Insurgent, in a surprising turn of events, is actually doing something. I would be proud, if their actions weren’t entirely asinine.

First, they hosted a guest speaker last week who advocated sex trafficking. No joke. From their blog:

War on Terror & War on Trafficking:
Why Irrational Panic over ‘Modern Day Slavery’ Harms Women

Thursday May 19th, from 6-730pm in Condon 104, University of Oregon.

Presented by Emi Koyama, War on Terror & War on Trafficking examines “facts” promoted by the anti-trafficking groups and “experts,” and exposes how they have distorted our conversations about sex trafficking and prostitution and harmed women, sex workers, immigrants, and others.

The presentation also explores many ways in which the new War on Trafficking resembles the so-called War on Terror in its worldview, approach, and devastating impact on vulnerable communities. […]

Come to find out why:

• Average age of entry into prostitution is not 12-14 year old
• 300,000 children are not at risk of being trafficked
• A third of runaway youth are not trafficked within first 48 hours
• Super Bowl and World Cup did not contribute to human trafficking
• Portland is not “Pornland, Oregon”
• “End Demand” approach targeting “johns” harms women
• Anti-trafficking “experts” should not be trusted (remember Bill Hillar?)
• Trafficking is often the State’s excuse to raid immigrants and communities of color
• Anti-trafficking movement distorts reality and misleads public policy

Clearly, the Student Insurgent advocates sex trafficking. The Commentator will be looking more into this story, including whether or not the Student Insurgent is housing underage, trafficked prostitutes in their office. Look for that next week.

Additionally, as I was walking by the Commentator distribution rack outside McKenzie Hall this afternoon, I saw this flier sitting on top of our HATE issues in the rack:

You know the Commentator. Constantly committing acts of ableism (which, and I’ve looked through our archives, I can’t find), objectifying women AND men, and generally slandering our fellow students.

Any responses to this flier should not only be directed to Dr. Shang (who, by the way, won the Professional Baller Tater Award last year) but also to us at winthings@oregoncommentator.com. Best response receives a Sudsy t-shirt and a hug from me and Sophie — AT THE SAME TIME. How can you say no?

On a more serious note: free speech, bitches. Deal with it.

EDIT: I can’t be sure this flier was indeed placed by the Insurgent, but based on the conversations I’ve had the last week, I can only guess.

  1. Cooper says:

    Someone’s got a mind like a rusted, steel trap. Mr. Graf and what appears to be an altar boy on the O’Reilly Factor: http://www.oregoncommentator.com/2009/09/02/always-good-for-a-few-laughs/

  2. Ashley says:

    Something just struck me. Didn’t the Commentator come to the defense of the Student Insurgent when people were asking for the latter to be defunded after printing “objectional” material? And now the Insurgent is turning around and…asking for the Commentator to be defunded after printing “objectional” material.

    O-kay.

  3. monalisasmiles says:

    I thought the University of Oregon was an institution of higher education that hears from all sides of an issue. Isn’t that the only way to form intelligent, coherent arguments? Isn’t that the purpose of the First Amendment? “Freedom of speech”? So when a student publication attacks another student publication, they just make themselves look bad.

  4. CJ says:

    If the Commentator is an “apologist for fascism,” as the Insurgent claims, for defending the First Amendment, then by their own logic the Insurgent is objectively pro-sex trafficking for hosting an anti-anti-sex trafficking speaker.

    Ah ha, hoisted by their own petard! Or punched in the nuts by their own gorilla. Whichever you prefer.

  5. LiaS. says:

    I have had opportunities to listen to Emi/Mika (she goes by fake names sometimes) speak on prostitution issues in Portland before and I honestly don’t believe she is a well woman. We’re talking about someone who goes around saying feminists rape and kill prostituted women more than johns and pimps and who does not believe children are forced into prostitution in alarming numbers.

    Sometimes she says something worthwhile about immigration and police abuse, but the irrational grudges and misplaced angers she indulges when defending men’s right to use prostitutes (and the weird fake name switching thing) really discredit her, in my opinion.

  6. Betz says:

    Also, any magazine that is not exclusively black-and-white alienates the color-blind population, and is possibly ableist …. you bastards!

  7. Kari Anne says:

    I attended the speaker, unlike Lyzi Diamond, and was interested to hear about the misrepresented facts that are often thrown out about human trafficking. In no way did the speaker promote or condone human trafficking. This article is incorrect in its liable assumption that the speaker is pro human trafficking. This is awful journalism and is rife with opinion, not facts, about the groups that Lyzi is talking about. It is sad to see this kind of rhetoric being spread when really the dialogue was about ending human trafficking and how many of the current methods hurt the victims/survivors rather than help. So why don’t we stop fighting amongst ourselves and examine the real issue at hand, you know like analyzing how the current laws and research is limiting and that we need to reexamine how we approach anti human trafficking work.

  8. […] I knew that something like this was bound to happen, but here it goes: Oregon Commentator, a conservative student publication of University of Oregon, alleges that I “advocated sex trafficking” in my May 19 presentation at the Eugene campus. Criticizing The Student Insurgent, which hosted my presentation, Oregon Commentator Editor-in-Chief Lyzi Diamond writes: […]

  9. Gsim says:

    I really hate to be with the Insurgent goons on anything, but if housing underaged prostitues is wrong… well i just don’t want to be right.

    chikka bow wow.

  10. Robert D'Andrea says:

    The best part of this post is that it’s filed under Things Only Ted Cares About. I need an RSS feed for those.

  11. If “ableism” is what I think it is, then any publication that doesn’t come out in braille is probably ableist.

  12. Sophay says:

    We wish were that clever. I just can’t wait to give a nice big squeeze to a lil anarchoprimitivist!

  13. C.W. Keating says:

    Can I get a hug from both of you anyways?

  14. Jay Knott says:

    This poster – ‘your fees are funding hate speech’ – IS a parody of the campus pc left, isn’t it? The Commentator staff did it themselves, right?

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.