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A group calling itself the Fearless Debates — openly inspired by Charlie Kirk — showed up on Tennessee State University’s Nashville campus on September 23, 2025 and were quickly escorted off after a chaotic confrontation with students. Videos and eyewitness accounts show the table was set with provocative signs and MAGA hats, and campus police removed the group, saying any demonstration required prior approval.
The signs reportedly read things like “DEI should be illegal” and “deport all illegals now,” language intended to inflame, but the response from the crowd went far beyond debate. Footage circulated of students allegedly tearing down signs, throwing drinks, and following the organizers to their car where additional harassment occurred — behavior the organizers call a violent mob rather than a peaceful protest.
TSU’s official line strained credulity when campus leaders described their students as “professional and respectful” even as videos show items stolen and a vehicle attacked after the group left campus. That kind of whitewash is a familiar pattern: a university embraces a narrative that protects its preferred politics while smearing or criminalizing opposing viewpoints.
What’s striking — and unforgivable — is the double standard on campus free speech. Conservative voices show up with a table and signs and are treated as provocateurs who must be removed, while aggressive crowd tactics are excused as passionate expression. If American universities are going to claim they defend the First Amendment, they must stop sanitizing mob behavior when the protesters share the administration’s politics.
The Nashville NAACP chapter even issued a statement of “solidarity,” framing the conservative visitors as having provoked students rather than acknowledging the threats and intimidation caught on camera. That institutional cover for intimidation only encourages more of the same and makes clear who benefits from the current campus power structure.
This episode is a reminder that conservatives will not be silenced or shoved off public campuses without accountability. University leaders and local law enforcement owe the public transparency, equal application of rules, and real consequences for theft, assault, and intimidation — not press statements that protect mobs and punish dissenting speech. The country’s colleges should be marketplaces of ideas, not curated echo chambers where only one side gets to shout.
