Milo Yiannopoulos invited to speak to NYU students on Halloween about political correctness

The invite has already spurred protests on campus

A New York University professor is standing by his decision to invite Milo Yiannopoulos to speak in his Global Liberal Studies class - despite growing resistance from students and staff.

Professor Michael Rectenwald, already a controversial figure on the NYU campus, extended an invite to the even-more controversial Yiannopoulos to appear as a guest speaker in the class “academic writing, real world topics” on Halloween - to “offer a different perspective than anything we’ve read.”

“There is a topic we have been dealing with in the class in the context of global culture,” Mr Rectenwald told The Independent. “Many of the issues we address Milo has addressed in his writing and his talks.”

Yiannopoulos, the former senior editor of Breitbart news, is a right-wing political and social commentator and author. He has faced public backlash on numerous occasions, including over comments he made regarding apparently pro-paedophilia remarks which led to him resigning from his role at the alt-right news organisation in 2017.

According to the professor, October 31st is the perfect opportunity - as it gives Yiannopoulos a backdrop to discuss “issues I want to talk about such as Halloween, cultural appropriation, identity, and the idea of costumes.”

For the occasion, Yiannopoulos has prepared a speech - which Mr Rectenwald told us he’s signed off on.

“He has written a speech that addresses these topics and others,” he told us. “He also throws in his own political views and there’s no way to stop him from doing that.

“There’s nothing I can do to say you can’t.”

Despite his acquiesce regarding what is likely to be a politically-charged right-wing speech, Mr Rectenwald is adamant that he does not agree with everything Yiannopoulos believes in - nor does he defend it.

“I just want to get across, I don’t stand behind everything he says and I don’t even know all of them. There are some things I would never say and I think they are nauseous,” the 59-year-old professor told us. “I don’t defend everything he’s ever said.”

He did like Yiannopoulos’ self-published book Dangerous, however, but admits that he prefers his own - Springtime for Snowflakes: ‘Social Justice’ and Its Postmodern Parentage.

According to Yiannopoulos, his decision to appear in the class stems from the 'mission' he’s on.

“I’ve spent years - and millions of dollars - trying to hold back the tide of political correctness on college campuses. I will spend as many more dollars and as many more years as it takes to win. Why would I ever stop, when I’m having so much more fun than my enemies?” he said via email.

As for the 14 students in the class, who recently found out about their guest speaker through an email from their professor, they appear relatively open-minded to the guest, according to Mr Rectenwald.

“The students in the class are interested and Googling. They are fine, I think, so far,” he told us - but if they decide not to show up, that’s fine too.

“They have three unexcused absences,” Mr Rectenwald said.

However, other students on NYU’s liberal arts campus are less open to their school inviting Yiannopoulos inside its doors.

On Twitter, a thread has already been started in the hopes of cancelling the appearance.

“NYC students here is a thread on actions you can take to stop Milo Yiannopoulos from coming to speak at our school this Wednesday #CancelMiloAtNYU,” it reads.

“Of course, there are other students planning a protest,” Mr Rectenwald said. “Campus leftists and Antifa are known to be extremely explosive, violent, and they think they can do anything to stop people from speaking.

“In my class, because they get conditioned to understand how the pieces fit together, it is the students outside that don’t understand this because they think that certain voices don’t have a right to be understood at all.”

According to Mr Rectenwald, those preparing to protest Yiannopoulos are “the double standard where speech is concerned” - and he’s preparing accordingly, by asking the school to increase security for the appearance.

Yiannopoulos reiterated the importance of free speech.

“I welcome protests - because I love free speech,” he told us. “But the grubby little urchins have to keep their mitts to themselves. No one deserves to be physically hurt for their beliefs, except vegans and cyclists.”

As for those who question the academic value of having Yiannopoulos, who is not an academic, speak at the school, Mr Rectenwald said: “Not every speaker has to be an academic. He represents a specific cultural perspective. That is why I can justify his presence in an academic setting.

“I don’t endorse everything Milo says. He is not the same person as me. I don’t have the exact same views at all. If I did, I wouldn’t bother having him on my campus.

“The concerns are overblown,” Mr Rectenwald reiterated, pointing us towards the blog writings of his acquaintance Rachel Fulton Brown, a professor at the University of Chicago who regularly defends Yiannopoulos.

If things do become unsafe, Mr Rectenwald said he will cancel the appearance - as the safety of his students is his primary concern.

This isn’t the first time the professor has come under scrutiny from NYU students and colleagues - in October 2016, he faced criticism over a Twitter account called Deplorable NYU Prof, where he expressed his views on such topics as “safe spaces,” according to the New York Post. He later requested and was granted a leave of absence from the university that semester.