'Vile and juvenile rhetoric' condemned at event billed as 'roast' of Kamala Harris

COLUMBIA — A University of South Carolina student event featuring a pair of controversial far-right political provocateurs drew some 150 attendees. Before it started, protesters both outside the event and on Statehouse grounds criticized it as hate speech.

Unlike at other college campuses where speakers sparked protests, no violence erupted Wednesday. The small group of protesters outside the event largely dispersed before the pair took the stage, though several entered and argued with the speakers when they took the stage.

The event sponsored by the USC chapter of Uncensored America was billed as a “roast” of Vice President Kamala Harris with “roastmasters” Milo Yiannopoulos and Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys. The marketing for it featured a vulgar spelling of Harris’ first name.

Beforehand, alumni, students, professors, legislators and the NAACP criticized the state’s largest university system for allowing it to happen. More than 27,000 people signed an online petition calling on the school to shut it down.

University administrators have stressed the speakers do not reflect the school’s view, and that they were neither invited nor endorsed by the college. But they declined to stop it as a matter of constitutionally protected free speech.

“As a university, we denounce hate and bigotry. We condemn the vile and juvenile rhetoric used to promote this event,” USC President Michael Amiridis wrote in an Aug. 27 email message to students.

“Censoring even the most hateful individuals and groups does not solve the problems we face in our society, and instead provides them with a platform to win more publicity and support, because their message was silenced,” he continued.

Attendees filed into USC’s student center for the evening event, past police officers and barriers not normally seen on Greene Street, which were set up in anticipation of a protest. Their reasons for going ranged from being fans of the speakers to just being curious to wanting to heckle the two men.

“I’m not big on politics; I really just came to people watch,” USC student Sydney Livingston told the SC Daily Gazette.

“I kind of want to mess with them honestly,” said student Aidan Thomas.

For student Will Castellow, it wasn’t his first Uncensored America event. He attended a debate on potential pornography bans that the group hosted last November.

Last week, USC’s student government voted to reject Uncensored America’s funding request of $3,600 to help pay for it, the Daily Gamecock reported.

Castellow said he did not think the pushback against Wednesday’s event or the funding denial was fair.

And student Emily Whitaker questioned why the elevated security was needed. She said she hasn’t seen such measures put in place for other events on campus involving opposing views. As an example, she pointed to a drag show that took place the first week of classes.

What attendees heard was some commentary on Vice President Harris’ political views, remarks on her race and the type of misogynistic comments the speakers are known for — as well as insults flung back and forth between the speakers and people in the crowd.

Hours earlier, on the steps of the South Carolina Statehouse, about 40 people gathered in opposition, with speeches by members of civil rights groups and several Black state legislators. A smaller crowd stood protesting outside the event.

“Freedom of speech has been used as an excuse to cover up for hate since our Constitution was adopted. So, it is our First Amendment right to speak against hateful rhetoric in our country,” said Tiffany James, president of the Columbia chapter of the National Action Network, a national group founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Hamilton Grant, a Democrat running for a seat in the state House, called it “a sad day” in South Carolina “when white supremacists are invited with open arms.”

“We will not go along quietly or silently, but we will stand for what is right,” said Rep. Ivory Thigpen, D-Columbia, who chairs the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus. “Because hate speech leads to hate acts, and this history of hate is not so long or so far removed.”

Yiannopoulos, a British writer who refers to himself as a “fabulous supervillain,” has been criticized for his Islamophobic, misogynistic and transphobic viewpoints. He is a former editor at Breitbart News, the alt-right news platform co-founded by former President Donald Trump strategist Steve Bannon — a job he resigned from in 2017 — and former chief of staff for Kanye West’s fashion brand Yeezy.

McInnes — who was born in London, raised in Canada and lives in New York — is the founder of the Proud Boys. The Anti-Defamation League says the self-described “western chauvinist” group is a “a right-wing extremist group with a violent agenda,” while the FBI describes them as an “extremist group with ties to white nationalism.”

McInnes announced in 2018 he was leaving the group, though he continues to be associated with it.

At least one group, the Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — which ranks freedom of speech on college campuses — applauded the university for its free speech stance.

Last year, the organization ranked USC as one of the worst colleges in the country for free speech. This year, it made the largest improvement of any other school, coming in at 34.

The ranking is based on school policies and surveys of students, which show that USC students now feel more comfortable expressing their views on a variety of topics, the foundation’s David Volodzko wrote in commentary published in The Post and Courier.

SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com. Follow SC Daily Gazette on Facebook and X.