Richard Spencer, the White nationalist who invented the term “alt-right” and a leader at the Charlottesville riot, spoke at the University of Florida (UF), home of the Gators. That was on October 19th 2017. The governor, fearing another Charlottesville, declared a state of emergency.
There were two arrests, no injuries, no deaths. There were hundreds of police. There were snipers and drones and helicopters. That part of campus was a ghost town. Hundreds of protesters showed up, but there were still plenty of empty seats in the auditorium where he spoke.
Unlike Charlottesville, the Klan was not out in force and protesters did not openly carry guns.
Protesters seemed intent on remaining peaceful, but any time Spencer spoke, they chanted over him, saying stuff like:
- Let’s go, Gators, let’s go!
- Go home, Spencer, go home!
- Alt-right, you cant hide, you support genocide.
- Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcomed here.
- Black lives matter.
- Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye.
His supporters, numbering two dozen or so, sat in front and were quiet. Many were White men in white shirts, cultlike.
Spencer, instead of giving a speech, berated the (mostly White) protesters while they chanted over him. He said they were acting like children, that it was the most important free-speech event of their lives, that they did not want to think for themselves, that they were afraid of his ideas. He said he was a “dissident intellectual” and they were “shrieking and grunting morons.”
He seemed to view the University of Florida as a large, boorish football school where students were brainwashed by Marxist professors.
After berating them, he took questions. The protesters would quiet down to the hear the questions but would chant over his answers. But from their chants it was clear they heard what he was saying.
They asked questions like:
- Do you believe in a White ethno-state?
- Do you believe in ethnic cleansing?
- Don’t your ideas lead to violence, like at Charlottesville or under Hitler?
- How can you say Whites are superior when you are so ugly?
- What was it like to get punched (by Antifa)?
- What are you still doing here?
Spencer said the dominant US institutions hate White people and had taught Whites to hate themselves. Whites need a country of their own. Multiculturalism and the Immigration Act of 1965 were destroying the US. He seemed to yearn for the 1950s that his parents knew.
Hitler comparisons: From the questions, it was clear that Hitler had given White nationalism a bad name and that Spencer was unable to shake the Hitler comparisons. He denied he was a Nazi, but they did not buy it. He said he was for ethnic cleansing, but did not make clear how that would take place without force or violence.
The university allowed him to speak in the name of free speech, but allowed him to control who could attend, even choosing which media outlets could come.
– Abagond, 2017
Update: There was a shooting after the event by one of Spencer’s supporters, but no one got hurt. Tyler Eugene Tenbrink, the alleged shooter, came from Texas to see Spencer speak. LA Times.
Update (October 24th): The university’s bell tower played the Black National Anthem when Spencer was there.
See a
- Richard Spencer
- alt-right
- Antifa – who punched him
- Charlottesville riot
- the 1950s
- Hitler
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“Whites need a country of their own.”
That statement always makes me chuckle.
White people already have countries of their own. They have had these countries for thousands of years, but were not content to stay in their own countries.
Their White ancestors made conscious decisions to invade other people’s lands, destroy their societies, murder or enslave the people and cart off their riches.
The gall of a descendant of those murderers to stand on stolen land and bray about needing “a country of his own” shows how delusional (and deadly) these White Supremacists really are to everyone else.
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@ Afrofem
If he does not like it in the US, maybe he should “go back to Europe.”
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I had to chuckle at that, and your answer! How true!
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@ Abagond
double chuckle
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Update: There was a shooting after the event by one of Spencer’s supporters, but no one got hurt. Tyler Eugene Tenbrink, the alleged shooter, came from Texas to see Spencer speak.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-richard-spencer-speech-20171020-story.html
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The next time he tries this, I hope the protesters add “Go back to Europe” to their chants.
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See an interesting testimony of Spencer’s (ex-)wife, Nina Kouprianova, a true Caucasian woman:
http://observer.com/2017/09/interview-nina-kouprianova-wife-of-alt-right-leader-richard-spencer/
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I have mixed feelings about shutting down this kind of speech. Free speech is important to maintain in a democracy. It is important that the ideas behind white suprememcy can be freely shared so that they can be deconstructed and rejected later.
If Spencer had been taking questions I would have rather heard dissenting answers rather then shutting down what he was saying.
I like that Amtifa is there to protect people against fascists. I dont like that they interfer with free speech.
I also think that you can’t gauge the size of the Altright by the few people who showed up. Its a much larger movement thats under the radar.
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@ MJB
I hear what you’re saying, and you do make valid points. But take into consideration that the ideas behind white supremacy are all over the freaking internet. This isn’t 1980 when it would take some dedicated searching to find white supremacist literature. Anyone who wants to prepare rebuttals for white supremacist ideology can do so without personally attending a speech by Richard Spencer.
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@ michaeljonbarker
I don’t have mixed feelings about the shouting down of Spencer.
I think shouting people down is not a valid way of challenging ideas. A better way is to let people express themselves, listen to their arguments and present a counter-argument. Shouting slogans is ineffective and damages the cause of the shouters.
The way the protesters behaved only added to Spencer’s propaganda efforts.
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I think shouting down Spencer was wrong. Not legally or morally, but tactically. At best it just drives his ideas underground. At worst, it makes it look like you fear his ideas because they are true.
Light is the best disinfectant.
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The protesters SHOULD have demanded equal time, maybe invite Tim Wise or someone able to tear him to pieces in a debate, humiliate him, make him a laughingstock. He is not as sharp as thinks he is nor are his ideas that well thought out. He hides behind a intellectual facade that needs to be kicked the eff in. (Because of the Rules of Racial Standing, his opponent would almost certainly have to be White.)
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@ Afrofem
I agree. I think it is what Spencer wanted. He is better at self-publicity than actual debate.
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The Rules of Racial Standing for those who do not know:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/the-five-rules-of-racial-standing/
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@ Abagond
Not only someone white, but someone who doesn’t identify as Jewish, even non-practicing — which would rule out Tim Wise.
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I do have mixed feelings. Part of me feels like after what happened in Charlottesville, he’s earned this. In fact, being heckled and shouted down is the least of what he’s got coming to him.
But, yeah, ultimately the heckling plays right into his narrative. It would have been better to get a real debate going.
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I prefer to hear what these turds have to say. Know thine enemy! I wouldn’t be surprised if this clown paid hecklers to shout him down. He probably thinks it adds to his ‘mystique’ as a champion and possible martyr for his beloved white race. Is it just me or does this man look like a pervert?
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I was hoping someone would run up on that podium and punch him in his stupid nazi face. But no such luck.
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In this age of 45 just like on Game of Thrones Winter is definitely coming. Richard Spencer and his ilk are trying to bait black people into a war we are not yet prepared to fight. I do believe we need to be ready and we in the black communities need to have some type of strategy in place and now more than ever we need to be in unity now is not the time for us to be divided.
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Was on Ebony.com Aaron Alex Courtney went to one of the nazi protesters with swaztikas on his tee shirt and hugged him and he decided the hateful soul need a hug. Asking “What’s wrong dawg, why do you hate me?” And in another act of resistance a music professor played Lift Every Voice And Sing from the bell tower.
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These guys have a recruitment video woth over 170,000 views. The artical doesn’t draw a direct connection with Spencer but they have the same white suprememcy views and have no qualms about violence.
https://www.propublica.org/article/white-hate-group-campaign-of-menace-rise-above-movement
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@ michaeljonbarker
Thanks for sharing that article. What A.C. Thompson described is White Privilege run amok. These violent criminals know they can hurt anyone they want and face few, if any, consequences.
This passage describes what happened after they physically attacked two reporters in California:
https://www.propublica.org/article/white-hate-group-campaign-of-menace-rise-above-movement
The most galling part of this is the constant demonization of non-violent Black protesters as “violent identity extremists” by all levels of police, the media and anti-Black bloggers like WOWO. Meanwhile an American Brownshirts organization is growing like weeds and facing very little opposition from officials or the media.
Two questions come to mind:
➽ Who profits from the rise of these groups?
➽ What type of society do their supporters want to live in?
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@Abagond
Any thoughts on Black ethno-states here in America? Also is there anything that can be done for Black Americans to be prosperous in America apart from Whites? Does democracy seem to claim any legitimacy when approx. 50% of the country is torn between a top down approach to governance ? Is there only one way to organize men? Can we not break away from the winner takes all approach? Localism and smaller forms of governance should work greater I believe. Let Progressives in San Fran govern themselves entirely. Let Red states govern themselves as they see fit. Could anyone object to the majority of San Francisco county wanting to try progressive ideas like UBI, brith control on demand, and free healthcare? All this can be done without the effects of San Fran’s system spilling to all states in the union if people wake up to the idea of one size fits all government and advocate for smaller forms of governance. Push it all down to the locals. Please let me know what you think.
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