Video just emerged of a professor at an art college in New York City, the School of Visual Arts and Hunter College, hurling vicious obscenities at pro-life students over a pro-life display at their school, a display that she eventually destroyed. That professor is Shellyne Rodriguez, 46. She is an adjunct professor who claims her work “utilizes text, drawing, painting, collage and sculpture to depict spaces and subjects engaged in strategies of survival against erasure and subjugation,” according to her bio.
Continuing, her bio adds “My work is rooted in hip hop culture, and thinks through hip hop’s ability to reinvent itself, in its malleability, and in the way it pulls from a variety of sources to create something new. The terrain the work navigates is a psychic space and is hinged to the baroque. My work engages with the emotive devices of the Baroque, and pairs itself with hip hop culture to sample and remix its machinations in order to depict the contemporary conditions of despair and alienation or perseverance and subversion of power. The ongoing inquiry in the work is how to sway and bend and duck and run and scream and mend and scratch and break and heal and push forward, utilizing a variety of sources and mediums. To sample and remix. To think and to make. And what does that look like in an object? As a narrative? As an action? As a gesture or a sound? On paper or on canvas?”
In any case, the video of Professor Rodriguez shows her screaming vulgarities at the pro-life students who set up a small display to express their beliefs, a display that she destroys. Watch that here:
Professor Shellyne Rodriguez of the @SVA_News accuses students at a pro-life table of "violence" and then proceeds to attack them. Any comment from Pres David Rhodes or VP @anthonyprhodes?pic.twitter.com/VdyKmYHq6U
— @amuse (@amuse) May 22, 2023
As you can hear in the video, she yelled, “You’re not educating s***. This is f***ing propaganda. What are you going to do, like, anti-trans next? This is bulls***. This is violent. You’re triggering my students.” Then, one of the male students attempted to reason with her, but she interrupted him, saying, “you can’t even have a f***ing baby.”
She then attempted to destroy the display, shoving pamphlets off of the table while yelling, “get this s*** the f*** out of here.”
Predictably, a leftist group called CUNY for Abortion Rights attempted to defend her on Instagram, saying:
ON TUESDAY, MAY 2 AT HUNTER COLLEGE, THE ANTI-ABORTION GROUP STUDENTS FOR LIFE SET UP A TABLE AND PROMINENT BANNERS TO PROPAGATE DANGEROUSLY FALSE PROPAGANDA, AFTER RECEIVING PERMISSION BY THE OFFICE OF STUDENT AFFAIRS (OSA). THIS KIND OF DISINFORMATION SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO TAKE ROOT AT CUNY.
HUNTER COLLEGE ADJUNCT EDUCATOR SHELLYNE RODRIGUEZ APPROACHED THE DISPLAY, CONSTRUCTIVELY CRITIQUED THE GROUP MEMBERS, AND EVENTUALLY PHYSICALLY TOOK DOWN ITEMS FROM THE TABLE. HER ACTIONS TO SHUT DOWN THE TABLING WERE FULLY JUSTIFIED, AND ARE PART OF A LONG CUNY LEGACY OF ACTIVISTS CONFRONTING GROUPS SUCH AS MILITARY RECRUITERS WHO DISSEMINATE MISLEADING INFORMATION.
ON MAY 12, SHELLYNE WAS SUMMONED TO THE HUNTER PROVOST’S OFFICE, WHERE SHE WAS QUESTIONED BY THE PROVOST AND THE DEAN, DIVERSITY & CAMPUS RELATIONS. ON MAY 17, THE NATIONAL STUDENTS FOR LIFE INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT POSTED A VIDEO OF SHELLEYNE CONFRONTING THE ANTI-CHOICE DISINFORMATION TABLE. THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF COMMENTS DEMANDING THAT HUNTER FIRE HER.
SHELLEYNE IS NOT ALONE. SHE HAS THE FULL SUPPORT OF PSC UNION MEMBERS, CUNY FOR ABORTION RIGHTS, PALESTINE SOLIDARITY ALLIANCE, AND OTHERS IN THE HUNTER AND CUNY COMMUNITY WHO REFUSE TO ALLOW ANTI-ABORTIONISTS TO PEDDLE FEARMONGERING AND FABRICATIONS AS “WOMEN’S RIGHTS.” AN ATTACK ON ANYONE’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE ABORTION IS AN ATTACK ON ALL OF US.
STUDENTS FOR LIFE IS A NATIONAL ORGANIZATION WITH A $10 MILLION BUDGET AND LONGTIME TIES TO THE AMERICAN CITY COUNTY EXCHANGE (ACCE). AN OFFSHOOT OF THE AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL (ALEC), WHICH IS A CONSERVATIVE LOBBYING FORCE THAT HAS SOUGHT TO ROLL BACK VOTING RIGHTS, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS, & MORE.
EVEN AS GOV. HOCHUL PASSED LEGISLATION TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO ABORTION PILLS ON CUNY CAMPUSES, HAVING GROUPS LIKE STUDENTS FOR LIFE ON CAMPUS WORKS TO UNDERMINE THIS VICTORY FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS.
AS HUNTER INVITES ANTI-ABORTIONISTS TO SPREAD LIES ON OUR CAMPUS, HUNTER LIMITS TABLINGS BY GROUPS LIKE THE PALESTINE SOLIDARITY ALLIANCE. ON MAY 15, THE ADMINISTRATION BLOCKED A FORMER CUNY STUDENT, NERDEEN KISWANI FROM SPEAKING AT A CUNY4PALESTINE EVENT.
MEANWHILE, STUDENTS FOR LIFE IS SPREADING LIES AT HUNTER, AS WELL AS OTHER CUNY SCHOOLS.
STUDENTS FOR LIFE AND OTHER FAR-RIGHT GROUPS ARE NOT WELCOME ON OUR CAMPUSES. ANTI-ABORTION PROPAGANDA ACTUALLY ENDANGERS PEOPLE’S LIVES, AND INCITES OTHER FAR-RIGHT VIEWS AND ACTIONS TO EMERGE. ANTI-ABORTION GROUPS ARE IN COLLUSION WITH ANTI-QUEER AND TRANS, ANTI-LABOR, AND ANTI-PALESTINIAN CAMPAIGNS, IN A LARGER VICIOUS VISION TO VIOLATE PEOPLE’S BODILY AUTONOMY, ECONOMIC WELL-BEING, AND COLLECTIVE DETERMINATION.
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