Hundreds of Students Showed Up After a Maryland University Rolled Out the Welcome Mat for a White Supremacist — and They Said Everything the Administration Wouldn’t
Hundreds of students booed and held signs reading “hate is not welcome!” to protest a white supremacist’s speech at Salisbury University in Maryland.
Jared Taylor, a self-proclaimed “advocate for white people,” spoke in a small campus lecture hall on April 29, amid heavy security and metal detectors, months after a previous event was postponed due to safety concerns. The event has inflamed a long-standing First Amendment debate over what constitutes free speech versus hate speech.
Dubbed the “godfather” of the alt-right by the media, Taylor has claimed that Black people are genetically less intelligent and more prone to crime than white people, and called racial profiling by police “common sense.” He is a vocal proponent of segregation and once wrote in his online magazine, American Renaissance, “When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization — any kind of civilization — disappears.”
Taylor’s supporters were overwhelmingly outnumbered by protesters who heckled the speaker and condemned his extremist rhetoric during his talk at the Eastern Shore institution.
His supporters, on the other hand, believe he has every right to espouse his views in public forums, including on college campuses. The debate continued online among social media commenters, who were clearly divided.
“Let him speak inside, and they can protest outside peacefully; that is what having freedom of speech is about,” read a popular comment on local station WBOC’s Facebook page. “You don’t have to agree with what is said, you just have to be respectful, mature, and evolved enough to know that he has a right to say what he wants.”
Another wrote, “Go listen to him. That’s the only way we can formulate a well-informed counterargument.”
But many people railed against the event. “There is no reason to support white supremacist speech,” said one, followed by the suggestion to “Have a black advocate there as well. That will be great freedom of speech.”
Indeed, many student protestors, as well as a spokesperson for Salisbury University, told the outlet that the event was a far cry from being productive. The university confirmed that it did not sponsor the speech and added that his views were “in direct opposition” to the school’s values. Taylor was invited by Maryland Federation of College Republicans chairman Colin McEvers, who is a former Salisbury student.
As for Taylor’s two cents on his opponents, he told the outlet, “They’re a bunch of big babies.”