Last Tuesday was a pretty historic night for Texas A&M University. When Richard Spencer was invited by an alum (who only attended briefly) to speak at the university, it sparked a lot of backlash and controversy. He has been described as 'white nationalist', 'white supremacist', and 'neo-Nazi', which he has attempted to deny, and calls himself an identitarian. No matter what he identifies as, he has still stirred up a great deal of rage among many people and is banned from twenty-six countries in Europe.
The people of our university responded with protests and attending an event organized by President Young. I was personally involved in the protests before attending Aggies United, and I was very proud of how the majority of the night was handled. I had never been in a part of a protest before, and it honestly moved me in a way that I hadn't expected or experienced before.
Later on in the week, I took the time to watch Richard Spencer's speech to see exactly what we had been protesting. There are honestly so many things wrong his message, attitude, and his entire movement in general. This man believes that we are stronger when divided into our perspective races and that our lives are built on the color of our skin. He promotes global separation and his ideas are just outdated beyond belief. In his speech, he stated this:
“America, at the end of the day, belongs to white men. Our bones are in the ground. We own it. At the end of the day, America can’t exist without us. We defined it. This country does belong to White people, culturally, politically, socially, everything.”
I am deeply embarrassed for him because he is blind to everything that people of all different backgrounds have brought to this country in order to make it better. America is a country of immigrants. Immigration made this country what it is today. It was not defined the moment it was conquered by the Europeans; it has defined and re-defined itself over time.
In the headlining video on his website, he refers to these terms: "Democracy, freedom, tolerance, multiculturalism" as empty abstractions. He claims that these things make us strangers in our own land. I see these terms as binding us together, and connecting us even further as individuals. He is wrong to think that diversity is weak or rootless; it is strong and promotes growth.
It saddens me that this type of hatred and divisiveness was brought to A&M's campus and that he felt his message would be accepted here. The university has come a long way in terms of acceptance, and I believe the retaliation towards him is a good representation of that. While some may disagree with President Young's response to Richard Spencer, I believe it was completely appropriate. By organizing Aggies United, he did not infringe upon Spencer's freedom of speech. But he did give us a peaceful way to show that his hateful rhetoric would not be tolerated on our campus.
He claims that we don't have a strong sense of identity and that we are rootless. But that is just a blatant lie. I know that I speak for myself and many others when I proudly say:
I am an American
I am a Texan
I am an Aggie
and I stand for love, not hate.
