This article reflects this author’s opinions and not those of this Her Campus chapter as a whole.
On April 19th, there were many responses to the presence of Neo-Nazis, Alt-Righters, and Spencer supporters, and much of it was heartening and worked toward hopefully changing how campus treats students and faculty of color, Muslim students and faculty, Jewish students and faculty, and international students and faculty.
“The black student leaders and I are very happy with the way the protest happened,” said Shannon Arthur, President of Auburn University College Democrats and of Auburn’s NAACP chapter. “We were organized, safe and nonviolent. That is the best possible outcome. It makes me really proud of Auburn students.”
(Arthur gave me her statement the morning after the protests, and this picture of her is courtesy of her)
The lack of violence at these protests was heartening for many who were afraid that Spencer’s followers and his violent ideologies about racial and ethnic cleansing would cause violence against students and faculty of color, Muslim students and faculty, Jewish students and faculty, and international students and faculty who were on campus. Fortunately, the only violence that was seen by many people occurred between an Antifa activist and a Neo-Nazi Spencer supporter. No Auburn students were arrested or hospitalized on campus, and while there was a physical threat made to many of the students of campus who are people of color, are Jewish, are international, and are Muslim, no major physical assaults were carried out against those threatened.
No violence is important when we look at how this day was handled. What also needs to addressed, however, is that there was a lot of hatred and apathy towards those protesting—mocking and “observation” of protesting that served to shut down the voices of those coming out to speak about their individual experiences of oppression. I spoke to many people who were at the protests. There were no students arrests, yet many students of color were chased, harassed, called racially charged names, and threatened not just by the pro-Spencer pool, but also by Auburn students and those who went to the protests to laugh or to silence people there. I spoke to Vicki Hoehn, a graduate of Auburn, whose experience at the protest she called, “metaphorical of [her] experience at Auburn as an undergraduate.”
(picture courtesy of Hoehn)
“At the protest there were those genuinely protesting against Richard Spencer and Hate Speech (about 20%), those who argued back to the Alt-Leftists/AntiFA (About 10%),” said Vicki, “and those with ‘comedic signs’ with non-relevant slogans such as ‘J cole went platinum with no features’ and ‘Billy Mays was Murdered.’”
Many people at the protest, it is obvious, were there to silence those who were challenging the university or who were expressing upset at the university’s long-standing problems with increasing diversity while also creating safe spaces for our students and faculty of color.
“There was a crowd around the genuine protestors who were telling us to ‘lighten up’ and basically mocking us,” Vicki also said. “Others called themselves ‘observers’ and stood silently or snickering with Snapchat open. In the crowd, I heard many people expressing that while they oppose Richard Spencer, they found the protest ineffectual and were there ‘just to see a fight.’”
And later that evening, Vicki was surrounded by Spencer supporters and chased off away while called a name I won’t repeat here, not helped by those claiming to be protesters. But the point is that Vicki’s individual experience is not an exception—it’s a rule that Auburn has stood by for a long time in its efforts to maintain its culture of Southern pride and respectability politics, a culture that harms and causes violence to those who are not white on campus.
White Auburn students need to get serious about what protests mean and what they are for. They are not parties (as many white people thought the January Women’s Marches were): they are serious forums in which oppressed people come to express their anger and their wish for change to happen. If you as a student are not serious about the support you are giving with your presence, you should stay home and leave it to those who care about what is being fought for. A long history of protesting from figures like the much-cited but misunderstood Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. demonstrates the need for serious, not mocking, people at protests. When there is no seriousness, people like Vicki are harassed and chased or threatened by those in attendance. Protests are not a sacred space, but they should be taken seriously.
But I’m not surprised that a lot of white Auburn students took to this protest mockingly because equity on this campus is always treated as a joke or as something that can be solved with money. Largely, Auburn as a culture works to support itself, continuing a cycle of a “respectable” image but allowing its students and faculty of color, Muslim students and faculty, Jewish students and faculty, and international students and faculty to be left behind.
“The message was loud and clear: Do not show discontentment with the university,” Vicki said.
Auburn cannot create a diverse school without addressing its racism, a racism built into the very walls. In its history of black face incidents, SGA presidents saying racial slurs, and the allowing of Neo-Nazis to come to campus, Auburn largely allows its image of a Southern school with Southern (read: white) pride.