NC State incident: A sad display at the Free Expression Tunnel
About a half-century ago, on a chilly November evening much like Monday, a dozen members of N.C. State University’s student government spent 20 bucks from the organization’s general fund to host a “paint in” at the most trafficked pedestrian tunnel on campus. That tunnel eventually became known as the Free Expression Tunnel, an N.C. State icon where people can spray or brush or roll most anything they want in the dimly lit corridor. It’s an enduring and sometimes uncomfortable tribute to the First Amendment, and this week it brought a reminder of how messy free expression can be.
On Monday evening, N.C. State freshman Jack Bishop — son of recently elected Republican Congressman Dan Bishop — was involved in an altercation in the tunnel involving a few dozen students. As Bishop told The News & Observer, he and about 15 other students were painting an advertisement for “Culture War,” a campus event Wednesday featuring guest speakers Charlie Kirk and Lara Trump, President Trump’s daughter-in-law. The event is hosted by N.C. State’s chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative student movement.
Soon, Bishop’s group had company at the tunnel. A slightly larger group of students arrived representing the Young Democratic Socialists of America at N.C. State and No Hate at NC State Coalition. That group also had paint, and the students began to cover up the artwork from Bishop’s group. A video captures about a half-minute of the altercation; it shows Bishop standing in front of his handiwork while someone sprays around him. At one point, Bishop leans slightly into the spray paint stream before saying “that’s right — spray painting me in the face.”
It’s the kind of incident that wasn’t much of an incident, but it certainly could have been avoided. The second group of spray painters should have waited instead of descending on the tunnel while Bishop’s group was still there. Bishop’s group, meanwhile, didn’t need to stand in the way of the new spray painters — free expression, after all, means someone can have an immediate response to yours.
This is usually the point when adults step in and calm things down. That’s what campus police smartly did, reportedly issuing a handful of campus conduct citations before dispersing the students. But when a member of Bishop’s group posted the 30-second video — and when Bishop took to twitter to encourage police to “find these thugs” — other adults gleefully joined the mud fight. That includes Dan Bishop, who understandably took up for his son on Twitter but couldn’t resist an over-the-top reference to the “hallmark assaults of the ‘tolerant’ left.” The conversation deteriorated from there, with barbs flying from both sides, and with young adults hard to distinguish from the not-so-young.
Which is too bad — and not at all surprising. It’s far from breaking news that we’re getting worse at disagreeing, and there’s little light at the end of whatever tunnel you’re looking down. We’re thankful the altercation at N.C. State didn’t turn into something worse, but we’re disappointed it ended up as it did — as another example of how differing perspectives have trouble coexisting these days, even in a place dedicated to our differences.
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 11:05 AM.