Too awkward to protect. Is this being said!!! No. Almost no official says the words “too awkward to protect.”That was a description of the effect, not a quote. What they actually say is the softer version:“It’s complicated.” “We have to balance free speech.” “Context matters.” “We condemn hate in all forms.” “This is a geopolitical conflict, not discrimination.” “We don’t want to chill activism.” Those phrases are used in public. The pattern underneath is that the same office will issue a same-day statement for one kind of incident and stall, parse, or form a task force for another. That is what “awkward” meant: politically inconvenient to confront, not a slogan they print on letterhead.If someone is putting “too awkward to protect” in quotes as if a chancellor said it, that is overselling. The honest version is: they almost never admit the double standard in those words, and they often act as if one group’s protection is a political cost they would rather not pay.