In the past few weeks, white supremacist Richard Spencer has appeared in news headline affecting UNC-Chapel Hill, Michigan State, Ohio State, the University of Florida, Louisiana State University, and Texas A&M. The question is why?
He keeps requesting a space to speak on his platform of white supremacy on these college campuses, yet with the recent events that resulted in a death in Charlottesville, university administrators are denying his requests - and with reason.
On UNC-CH's campus alone, some students have felt unsafe to even go near McCorkle Place because of the Silent Sam controversy that still has not been resolved. The student body at UNC is very divided on the issue with lots of students wanting the statue to come down because of its remembrance of Confederate soldiers fighting for the right to slavery, and others simply think it needs to be left up for historical purposes.
I think the issue at hand, though, should make all of the college campuses involved in Spencer's requests wonder what really is his motive? Is Spencer trying to rack up impressions on news sites and social media?
Is he trying to help those of us who question his moral beliefs of how one race is supreme to all others? Is he using America's liberal arts universities as a platform to further his own supremacy agenda? Or does he have good intentions of trying to offer the other side of a very heated debate?
In my opinion, it seems like a stretch to say it's coincidental that he continues to request space at these various universities and then gets faced with denials from university administrators, like Chancellor Carol Folt from UNC-CH. If he keeps getting denied, then why does he continue to apply for additional universities' spaces?
What is it that is so important in his white supremacy agenda that he needs permission for space on college campuses when truthfully if he wanted to, he could walk in the Pit's public forum on UNC-CH's campus and speak with regulation or permission? I mean, the Pit preachers do it all of the time, so what's stopping Richard Spencer?
I think a real question we should ask ourselves, though, regardless of how we feel is could Spencer offer insight into how he feels about being supreme as a white man? Should we allow ourselves to be open to the marketplace of ideas no matter how much we disagree with the other side of the argument? Or should we fight to keep him away?
