Tancredo, William Gheen and his goons have enough space, time and money to train and pay internet fighter pilots to spam their extremism on mainstream immigration news articles. Officially, I do believe that exposing their bigotry and hilarious delusions helps our cause so they should be allowed to speak at public forums like universities all they want wearing their white coats and carrying their copy-paste talking points. It reminds people like me who live in the hotbed of pot-smoking, gay-loving, commie-worshipping areas (the Bay Area), that archaic points of view are ‘out there’ and need to be defeated.
However, one wonders what sort of treatment do Tom Tancredo and his nativist cronies expect after spending years spewing hatred, lies, ignorance and misinformation about undocumented immigrants and anyone that is remotely ‘different’ from them? When one breeds a culture of hate and violence backed with policies that aim to make life difficult for immigrants in this country, one cannot possibly expect everyone to react in a peaceful manner. These extremists don’t want dialogue as has been demonstrated time and again and the students in question were not about to engage in a dialogue with hate. So what were Tancredo and his band of extremist nuts expecting at the liberal University of North Carolina? Gabe at Documenting Me has a theory: Now, clearly he is implicitly blaming this havoc on Dreamers, trying to make us look like an angry mob. However, if one takes a second to ponder about the potential repercussions of the protester's violent actions, such as jail time, then one thing becomes apparent. Undocumented students would not risk being deported for such inefficient means of expressing one's self. This thought then leads me into a conspiracy theory that begins by asking: "Who would have the most to gain from Mr. Tancredo being harassed off stage?" And mind you, Tancredo could not even attract 1 percent of the votes while running in the Republican Presidential primaries. Nativism is so popular after all. Gabe continues: Clearly not my peers and I. Personally I do not condone violence, and I'm sure this sentiment is shared by many undocumented students who have been shouted at, harassed and CAPSLOCKED by the neighborhood Gheene fan.
Yet, the opposition relishes in its aggressive (and often times violent) efforts at making undocumented immigrants be pervasive law breakers.
So, when faced with intelligent English speaking, college educated, logic following undocumented immigrants, Gheene and his crew got desperate and formulated this disruption.
Or maybe, Mr. Tancredo forgot to write his speech and this was his back up plan? It’s certainly food for thought. One thing that is critically important to note from the videos and commentary is that the ethnic minority students protested quietly while the white student allies made the most noise. Maybe that is an issue of empowerment and privileging that should be discussed more in-depth.
We love this piece in the Denver Westwood Blog: In the end, though, the protesters won -- to the acute embarrassment of campus officials, who issued an apology of sorts to Tancredo and the group that invited him. There may not be a lot of substantive activism on college campuses these days, but speech is still cheap, if not free. Especially if you can scream louder than the other guy.
Effectively, Tancredo, Gheen and his cronies are not upset about their free speech rights being violated. They are upset that for once, a group of students shot down part of their National Hate Tour. One can only wonder how much whining we would hear from them once the DREAM Act or any other sort of pro-immigration legislation passes. The Youth for Western Civilization continue to embark on the journey to become the junior StormFront. Now Goode, a Republican who opposes illegal immigration and supports limits on legal immigration, will speak Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in Gardner Hall on campus. |
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