Harvard Professor Randall Kennedy/Image: Video screenshot via @scrowder/X

On Monday, conservative podcaster Steven Crowder debated Harvard Law professor Randall Kennedy in Boston. The event was billed as the first “Change My Mind” event against a professor, not a student.

The debate focused on DEI hiring pledges, affirmative action and merit, conservative speech on campus, and the Trump administration’s efforts to withhold federal funding from Harvard.

During the questions, one audience member shared the realities of being a conservative on most college campuses and shared that she had to hide being conservative just to graduate.

She sharedm “This is a question for the professor. I am a research scientist in what is lovingly referred to as ‘the People’s Republic of Cambridge.’ I actually worry in my workplace, based off of commentary around me, that I will be passed up for promotions, that I will be looked at differently because of my views.”

“I got a new job within this company recently, and one of the first things, I think I was six days into the job was, ‘but you didn’t vote for Trump, right?’ I was a graduate recently at the University of Southern California, very similar to Harvard in a lot of ways. I had to lie on papers in order to graduate because professors would grade me lower because of my opinion.”

“With all of that and you saying how you think diversity in ideology, in creed, in opinion is so important on campus, how— what experiences do you have that you can stand on this stage and still tell us that you think that we don’t get discriminated against in academic settings, in private universities that have a monopoly of a lot of higher education that is mimicked with a lot of the corporate world, a lot of the research world, because we have graduates and professors from these universities working in these same fields and giving us that same experience where I’m worried that people might even see this.”

Kennedy responded, “If a teacher marked you down, if a professor marked you down because of their belief that, you know, you’re a conservative or voted for Donald Trump or whatever, you know, anything of that ilk, that was wrong, that was bad. Do I think that that happens? Unfortunately, in your case, yeah, I think that happens.”

“And to the extent that that happens, that ought to be condemned, and we ought to be on guard about it. And, you know, that’s a bad thing. I mean, that’s my response to you. And I think…

The audience member cut in, “But I’m not the only one. I have friends at Harvard that experienced the same thing.”

Crowder interjected, “No, this is your lived experience, and this is the thing. This is why I wanted to…”

Kennedy continued, “To the extent that that happens, I mean, I want to be very clear about it, to the extent that that happens, that’s a bad thing. I condemn it.”

Watch:

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