President Corrigan has banned all new murals in the Cesar Chavez Student Center because he opposes the mural celebrating Palestinian culture and Columbia professor Dr. Edward Said. The Student Center Governing Board (SCGB) selected and approved the mural using an arts acquisition policy Corrigan approved of several years ago. According to the SCGB managing director, Corrigan has never asked in writing for the policy to be changed until a few days before the board was to vote on the Palestinian mural.

The mural committee was composed of faculty, staff, administrators and students from many different ethnic and religious backgrounds. The committee held public, open meetings for almost a year. Two town hall meetings were conducted for the mural design, and out of hundreds of responses from students, faculty, staff and administrators, only two were negative. So for Corrigan to declare censorship of all murals two hours after the mural was approved by the SCGB because he opposes its content is a violation of democracy and free speech.

The Palestinian mural was planned in conjunction with a Native American mural. Each mural represents a specific community, yet similar to the existing murals celebrating Filipino-Americans, Malcolm X and Cesar Chavez, each transcends race by inspiring students of all backgrounds to celebrate those who struggled for self-determination, justice and human rights. Dr. Edward Said wrote in his book “Orientalism” (which is taught at SF State), that Arab and Asian peoples have been oppressed by the West's attempts to define them with negative stereotypes and disallow them to define themselves.

Native Americans have also suffered discrimination from racist portrayals in mainstream Western culture. The new murals were designed to stand for the right of indigenous people to define themselves and to make minority students feel welcome at SF State.

President Corrigan says that the Palestinian mural is conflict-centered and he demands that any portrayal of Palestinians present an "inter-group" perspective – meaning that it must include how another group of people, (white people?), view Arabs. This is an exact example of the racism that Dr. Said advocated against. The Palestinian mural is not conflict centered. It is a groundbreaking collaboration between a Palestinian artist and a Jewish artist, between a man and a woman. It displays the word “peace” spelled in Arabic in the shape of two doves and a quote from Dr. Said explaining that humanism, (a dialectical understanding of the innate humanity of all people) is the only way to resolve conflict and violence. Corrigan says he opposes the content of the mural, but refuses to state publicly exactly what particular images he’s against.

From his actions I surmise that his censorship is a statement of opposition to the concept that Palestinians have the right to define their own culture for themselves. That is racism. You would not tell Black students that a mural of their culture must contain stereotypes and opinions created by White-Americans of the African-American community, even if the African-American mural depicted a social conflict between Whites and Blacks such as the Civil Rights Movement. But that is exactly what Corrigan is demanding.

Anti-racist students need to oppose Corrigan’s ban on free speech. Please support the right of indigenous people to display their culture as they experience it. SF State is a diverse campus. Let's keep it welcoming for everyone, including Arabs and Native-Americans. Let’s honor the effort of students, faculty, administrators, staff and artists who worked for more than a year to create these beautiful images in a democratic, inclusive and peaceful fashion.