<p>A week after last week's mob censorship of former Rep. Tom Tancredo, another Conservative speaker, former Rep. Virgil Goode of Virginia, has been invited to speak. He will be giving a presentation at 6:30 today, amidst tight security. At least one group has said that they will be protesting the event, and yesterday fliers were distributed that wrongfully attributed the group bringing Mr. Goode here to the KKK and neo-Nazi groups. </p>
<p>I plan on attending this event; hopefully any protests will remain peaceful and productive and Mr. Goode will be able to speak freely. Unfortunately, after last week's debacle, I'm not too optimistic...</p>
<p>Apparently he has a problem with people of different religions being allowed to live in the United States.</p>
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<p>In other words, people with dark skin are bad, we should be a nation for white christian people only.</p>
<p>Is it the same group that invited him?</p>
<p>If so, I’m not surprised that a group which is a clear derivative of the white nationalist movement would invite a second known racist to speak… but I find it repugnant that a blatantly racist organization would be given a charter to operate at Carolina.</p>
<p>Goode’s overt racism and bashing of people who are different are the reason he was soundly defeated.</p>
<p>You may call them racist, but that is merely your opinion. They are radical, that is for sure, but so is SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), which flirts with communism and sympathizes with terrorism. By allowing a radical leftist group such as SDS to operate on campus, the university would have been unfairly discriminating against an equally radical right-wing group (YWC) if it had not been given a charter here.</p>
<p>And YWC is not a racist organization-it embraces members of all races (I think they actually have minority members in a few chapters) as long as they embrace American culture. If you are black or Hispanic but love baseball, Jesus and beer (oversimplifying, but you get my point), I’m sure that YWC would welcome you ;).</p>
<p>It’s not just my opinion, it’s pretty much the opinion of anyone who isn’t in, affiliated with, or enamored by the group.</p>
<p>They’re not just radical, their positions are blatantly racist. I don’t know anything about SDS, but a political philosophy and opinions about political issues you disagree with is vastly different than the overt racism that can be seen in the founders and aim of the organization.</p>
<p>The problem is when they say “American” …what they really mean is “White” and “Christian” and have no tolerance for people who look different or believe differently than they do.</p>
<p>There’s been plenty of articles written lately about this group, they have plenty of ties to racist organizations, their founders are involved in racist organizations, so calling them racist isn’t any kind of stretch. Check out the article written by the SPL if you’re interested.</p>
<p>Like I said in the other thread, tolerance of intolerance is not tolerance at all. While I respect a racist like Tancredo or Goode’s right to be racist (free speech is worthless if it only protects popular speech), I disagree with providing them a platform from which to spew their racist, intolerant bile.</p>
<p>It isn’t just political philosophy-SDS is nuts. They are the only campus organization that I know of that has used violence to achieve their goals. </p>
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<p>The SPL article is garbage; SPL is well known as a biased, anti-Conservative organization so anything that they write about a Conservative group should be taken with a grain of salt. If you could find a non-biased verification of your claims, though (say a Reuters or NYT article), then I would be more inclined to believe your charge of racism.</p>
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<p>Platform? He came from Congress in Washington-that is pretty much as big of a platform as you can get. There is no way that he should be restricted from speaking in a small classroom at UNC, or even a large auditorium for that matter. </p>
<p>UNC almost lost its accreditation in the 1960s because it refused to allow controversial speakers to come. Reinstating the “Speaker Ban” would be a huge move backwards for the university and would put its reputation at serious risk once again. At the very least it would be likely to lose all state funding by taking part in such an action.</p>
<p>Also, I think the whole idea of preserving “Western civilization” is a ridiculous cover for obvious white supremacy because the only thing all Western cultures have in common is that they’re all white. I’m really curious to know what else other than race binds together Italians, the Irish, the French, etc.</p>
<p>I’d probably be attending this talk if I weren’t going to the huge party at Duke tonight!! :)</p>
<p>Well, judging from other chapters that appear to have minorities as part of their membership, it appears that you may be mistaken. I believe that the founder here (Riley Matheson?) even said so in his interview with the DTH.</p>
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<p>Who knows; like I said, they are certainly a fringe group. But they are no more radical than some other groups on campus (like SDS). If you don’t like them, don’t pay attention to them. I’m going to the speech tonight, but only because I want to see what will happen, not because I have any interest in YWC or Goode. I guess the protesters don’t understand that if they would just leave these people alone, their guest speakers would be speaking in front of 7 or 10 people instead of dozens on campus and potentially millions once the news starts covering them.</p>
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<p>Haha yikes. Just don’t wear any of that awful shade of dark blue and you’ll be alright.</p>
<p>Just got back from the event. Have to say I was pleasantly surprised with how things turned out. Mr. Goode was able to give his entire speech and there was even a question and answer session afterward that went largely without incident.</p>
<p>Before the event began, a UNC official took the mic and said that he was giving one warning, anyone yelling for or against Mr. Goode would be escorted out by one of the roughly 25 UNC police officers there. A few people didn’t care, they yelled things like “racist” or made loud jokes until they were swarmed by police and escorted out. About 10 minutes into the event, 2 loud noisemakers were deployed which made it very difficult to hear what Mr. Goode was saying. The police came, found one and asked someone who was sitting on the other to stand up so that they could remove it. Dirty hippie #1 stands up and yells, “stop assaulting my friend!” and “pigs” and things of that nature, even though the police weren’t touching anyone. He was detained and taken out a few minutes later.</p>
<p>Once the dirty hippies were forced out (about 6 or 7 total), the speech went very well. There were a lot of people who disliked Mr. Goode’s ideas in the question and answer session, yet all of them were prefaced their questions by apologizing for the protesters and saying that they were not representative of UNC as whole. Mr. Goode was grilled (respectfully) on his views on affirmative action and illegal immigration, and good dialogue was exchanged. </p>
<p>All in all it was a good event once the loudmouths were kicked out. Both sides got to exchange ideas, and no tasers or pepper spray were used. And, most importantly, nothing was broken!</p>
<p>Not trying to pad my post count or anything, but DTH just posted that the 6 people who tried to interrupt the speech were actually arrested on disorderly conduct charges and taken to jail on a p2p bus (haha). Additionally, it looked like UNC’s honor court or some other type of administrative officials may have been there videotaping the crowd so that they will have evidence against the disorderly people. I was happy that the unruly people were escorted out, but I’m thrilled to know that they were actually arrested. Great job UNC, way to take aggressive action to ensure freedom of speech on this campus!</p>
<p>Same old thing. They are forming all kinds of committees, having all kinds of meeting to figure out what to do about “hate speech” in the tunnel. Honestly, have you been in this tunnel? It changes every 15 minutes. Who can keep track of all the graffiti?</p>
<p>Do you really think Western Civilization is just code for racist and the French, Germans, Irish, Polish, Swedish and other European people emigrated here to be racist? Why would they not have stayed in their own countries which were much whiter? </p>
<p>Yes, Western Civilization is so racist and bad that Asians, Hispanics, and Africans, clamor to come here instead of staying in their much better countries? I find it sad when young people can only complain about America and her values while people from all over the world do all they can to get here, including risking their lives. Maybe you need to speak to some immigrants and find out why they are here. You may learn to appreciate Western Civilization a bit more.</p>
<p>Just because this organization and other racist ones associated with it couch their language to be less offensive to modern sensibilities doesn’t mean they aren’t racist.</p>
<p>It’s incredibly stupid to assume that those of us who point out racism don’t know any immigrants. Many of my closest friends where I go to school have immigrated to the United States seeing better lives for themselves and their families. They come from all over the globe: Liberia, Congo, Sudan, Pakistan, Ghana, Vietnam…</p>
<p>And they’re what make America great. They embody the American dream, working hard to succeed.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with wanting to come to America. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to come to America without abandoning your heritage.</p>
<p>Several of my friends are Muslim, several are Christian. We all get along great, and often discuss the differences in our heritages and cultures.</p>
<p>The fact that they invited two racists to give speeches speaks volumes about their intentions. Goode lost his seat because his overt racism was exposed for all to see with his comment about being “worried” that we might have more “Muslims” living in the US …and that even legal immigration should be stopped</p>
<p>People here aren’t complaining about “America’s values” … we’re complaining about those who dishonor America’s values by not respecting those who are different and recognizing that we are a nation of immigrants, of all different colors and religions.</p>
<p>THAT is what makes us great, not the homogeneity they advocate.</p>
<p>I also know immigrants as well. Actually, a few of my friends are illegal, but they’re great people, and I would not have the pleasure of knowing them if any of these people were in control.
I’m not condoning illegal immigration, but the YWC would have these people deported immediately, simply to look forward to a mediocre life as a statistic in their dangerous home country without hope for return. They don’t even appreciate legal immigration!</p>
<p>I’ll promote the First Amendment all day, but I will never support or show respect for blatant racism.</p>