A panel of four white hosts on Fox News decided on Monday that African-Americans should not be offended by people who respond to the Black Lives Matter movement by countering with the slogan "All Lives Matters."
The University of Houston's Student Government vice president, Rohini Sethi, was hit with sanctions last week after she posted a message on Facebook that read: "Forget #BlackLivesMatter; more like #AllLivesMatter"
“For her to say on her social media ‘forget black lives matter,’ it’s almost as if to say if all of us were to die tomorrow, she wouldn’t care,” University of Houston Black Student Union President Kadidja Koné explained to The Washington Post on Monday.
But four white women hosting Fox News' Outnumbered on Monday expressed outrage over the sanctions.
"The penalty was so harsh," host Elizabeth McDonald complained. "The student leader, the president also said... you don't go to jail for First Amendment violations but she deserves tougher sanctions. Who is this guy? He should be tossed out of his job."
"I still don't understand why saying 'All Lives Matter' is controversial," co-host Meghan McCain chimed in. "I don't understand why you can't have empathy and understanding for the Black Lives Matter movement and also think that all lives everywhere -- including by the way in the womb -- also matter. Like, it's really hard for me to understand how this is controversial."
Monday's Outnumbered guest, conservative radio host David Webb, declared that Black Lives Matter was a "violent movement" with "anarchists" behind it.
"It is such a false argument," co-host Lisa Kennedy Montgomery opined. "It's so offensive because when you say 'All Lives Matter,' you are not intending to say -- for most people -- is black lives don't matter, but that's how it's taken."
McCain asserted that universities would let students "go off on Trump" and "to say the most awful, disgusting, horrific things and there would be no recourse."
"But you say this," McCain added, "you say 'All Lives Matter' and you get demoted and you get your job taken away. That's crazy."
"Is there just no open discourse?" co-host Sandra Smith wondered. "Can you just not have a conversation on college campus anymore without someone being offended or having to delete a Facebook post where someone shares their opinion?"
"I'm for not backing down anymore," Webb said. "You can take your safe space crowd -- it doesn't exist, this is college. This is supposed to be an expansion of our minds."
