Jessica Holdman, SC Daily Gazette

'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.

USC criticized for event featuring Proud Boys founder and far-right commentators

COLUMBIA — A social media message circulating among University of South Carolina alumni is criticizing the state’s largest university system for allowing a student event featuring a pair of controversial far-right political provocateurs, including the founder of the Proud Boys.

In response, a college spokesman said allowing the event is a matter of free speech.

The September event, sponsored by the USC chapter of Uncensored America, bills itself as a “roast” of Vice President Kamala Harris with “roastmasters” Milo Yiannopoulos and Gavin McInnes. The event’s title uses a crude spelling of the Democratic presidential nominee’s name, which the SC Daily Gazette is intentionally not repeating.

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 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.

“Allowing this event to happen on campus is nothing less than USC sponsoring white nationalism,” the social media message read.

The message urged former USC students to “flood the alumni office and events coordinator with messages.”

USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said the university has a longstanding tradition of allowing recognized student groups to host speakers and hold events of their choosing. As a public institution, the university seeks to uphold people’s individual, constitutional rights to free speech, he said.

Stensland said USC does not endorse any speakers, and events hosted at the college do not represent the school’s point of view.

The event is not listed on the university’s website of upcoming events at the Russell House student center, where it’s being held.

Critics include former state Rep. Bakari Sellers, a USC law school graduate and CNN political commentator, who called his alma mater’s explanation lame.

“I expect some accountability on this asap,” he wrote on the social media platform X.

This is not the first time a Yiannopoulos event has caused controversy on a university campus.

When he was scheduled to speak in 2017 at the University of California, Berkeley, at the invitation of the College Republicans student group, about 1,500 people showed up to protest the event.

That protest erupted in violence, with people pulling down police barricades, throwing Molotov cocktails, smashing windows, and throwing fireworks and rocks, CNN reported.

The USC student group, Uncensored America, describes itself as a free speech organization. It also hosted right-wing commentator and self-described “proud Islamaphobe” Laura Loomer on campus last year, drawing criticism.

S.C. legislator says he was held at gunpoint in road rage incident

NORTH CHARLESTON — A South Carolina legislator hopes to raise awareness after he said a man threatened him with a gun in a road rage incident in North Charleston.

Rep. J.A. Moore told the SC Daily Gazette he was passing time in the Park Circle neighborhood around 1 p.m. Tuesday, waiting until he could pick up his daughter from her first day of kindergarten at a school just a couple of miles away.

The North Charleston Democrat said he was waiting for a driver to pull out of a parking spot so he could pull in, when a man driving a black truck pulled into the spot ahead of Moore.

Moore, a 39-year-old chef, admits rolling down the window and swearing at the man, who was a stranger to Moore.

In response, the 66-year-old man allegedly pulled out a handgun, according to statements Moore made to the Daily Gazette and a North Charleston Police Department report.

“It was just shocking for someone to do that over a parking spot,” Moore told the Daily Gazette. “I could have gotten killed. I could have died at that moment, and the first memory my daughter could have had of her going to school is that her father died on the way to pick her up.”

Moore said he then tried to stay calm and not make any sudden movements until the man put the gun down. Moore then took a photo of the man and photo of his license plate before calling police.

Police arrived and found the man inside one of the nearby restaurants, according to the police report. Officers said the man first denied the altercation but then admitted to a verbal argument after they showed him the photos of himself.

The man denied pointing a handgun at Moore, according to the report.

The report notes there were no witnesses and no security footage available. It also makes no mention of officers asking the man if they can look in his vehicle for a gun.

“Fortunately for me, I didn’t do anything hasty, and fortunately, my daughter was not in the car,” Moore said.

Moore said officers told him he would need to contact a police department detective to prompt further investigation and pursue charges because police did not have enough evidence in that moment to arrest the man.

Moore also sent out a press statement following the incident. He told the Daily Gazette he hopes by speaking publicly about the experience it will spark conversations within the community.

“I don’t want to get into a policy conversation in this moment,” said the legislator, who was greatly opposed to the state’s recently passed law expanding the right to carry a concealed handgun without a permit.

“Why did he feel emboldened enough to pull out a gun over something so small? I don’t know his reason,” Moore added.

Moore and his family are no strangers to gun violence.

His sister was among the nine parishioners massacred by an avowed white supremacist while they were gathered for an evening Bible study at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston on July 17, 2015.

His sister’s death is part of what inspired Moore to run for office.

“I just hate that this happened,” Moore said of his own altercation. “These are the kind of conversations we need to have about the culture in this country of handling disputes through gun violence.”

Moore, first elected to the House in 2018, trounced his Democratic challenger in June, winning the primary with 87% of the vote. He faces a Republican in November for the seat representing parts of Charleston and Berkeley counties.