As the crowd streamed out of Ward 1 last Thursday, shouts for ethnic pride and gay rights rang through the air while faint voices sang "This Land is My Land." Former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., had just given his talk about assimilation against the "cult of multiculturalism," and some students had been stifling and hushing their reactions to his words all night.
The AU chapter of the national organization Youth for Western Civilization invited Tancredo to speak on campus, and the event drew both interest and protest.
YWC started on campus last semester through the efforts of Kevin DeAnna, a senior in the School of International Service who also helped found the national organization.
"I started it here and found some other people who agreed with its goals," DeAnna said.
YWC chapters also exist at several other campuses across the nation, according to the group's Facebook page.
The group's Facebook page also displays its mission statement.
"The purpose of Youth for Western Civilization is to form a right wing youth movement," the page said. "Youth for Western Civilization educates, organizes and trains activists on campuses across the nation to create a subculture that promotes the survival of Western Civilization and pride in Western heritage."
Protest organizers referenced the Facebook page during a preliminary organizational meeting prior to Tancredo's speech.
"The language on the Facebook group is flawless," said Bianca Jones, Inter-cultural Liaison of Black Student Alliance, who came to the meeting representing herself and not the BSA.
The AU YWC Facebook group's description said the group's purpose is to educate about and promote pride in Western heritage and incite debate among its members on "issues of vital important to Western Civilization."
Josh Jacobs, a freshman in SIS, said he thinks the YWC is not racist on its Facebook page or elsewhere.
"I'm Jewish, our vice president is Hispanic, our president is an international student and we have multi-ethnic and multi-religious members," Jacobs said.
Even with diversity within the group, one can still show pride in the group's collective Western heritage and identiy, Jacobs said.
"We hold that you should not be proud of your biology. There is nothing special about being born white, black, or Hispanic. It's a skin color," he said.
"I felt the need to join the Youth for Western Civilization group in order to see what the group and some of their members stand for," said Nafiza Jelassi, a senior in SIS and the Kogod School of Business who is an Egyptian-born Muslim.
Jelassi said she felt the group directs its attitudes solely towards white Americans.
"I want to disprove their stereotypes of people who don't fall into their understanding of who's an American by getting to know them and letting them get to know me," she said.
"It is important for Muslims to not only be open to others but to help people understand what we stand for," she said. "[YWC] is very new to our campus and perhaps some of the members may benefit learning from AU's diversity," she said.
DeAnna discussed the YWC's mission and views in an e-mail interview.
"We are opposed to radical multiculturalism, mass immigration, racial preferences and attempts to move curriculum away from Western Canon," DeAnna said in the e-mail. "We are a nonpartisan conservative youth group that is concerned about the far left climate on American college campuses and are trying to push the debate back to the center."
Vitus Van Rij and Amanda Patino, freshmen in SIS, helped to start and lead the group with DeAnna this year.
"The reason I was attracted to the group was because of the sort of hypocrisy I found on the leftist movement," Patino said. "There's this idea that we're all equal and whatnot, but at the same time there's nothing unifying about their actions ... there are plenty of other people trying to tear our country apart and they don't need our help doing it."
She said she helped DeAnna start AU's YWC chapter last semester, but they did not plan any events until this semester.
"[Tom Tancredo's talk] was our first main event," DeAnna said. "It went well ... It was to open a debate on immigration and assimilation and announce our presence on campus ... We got our message out, the lecture was well attended by both sides."
Some students wore black clothing and carried signs to protest of the event, but some came to support Tancredo's message and join forces with YWC.
Since Tancredo's lecture, YWC's Facebook group has increased its membership.
"I met a number of new members," DeAnna said. "I don't exactly have a formal roster right now ... [but] it's certainly growing ... and I expect that growth will continue."
Jacobs said he joined YWC a few weeks ago.
"The group offers a good alternative perspective on ... a very pro-multicultural campus," he said.
Jacobs is involved in College Republicans as well as in YWC, and several other YWC members are also affiliated with College Republicans, including College Republicans Vice President Luke Kraus and David Lindgren, a freshman in SIS.
Though College Republicans and YWC hold certain ideals in common, Lindgren said YWC needs to exist separate from a partisan organization.
"I am a member of the College Republicans," he said. "And although certain parts of the Republican ideology align with that of the YWC, I feel YWC focuses and seeks to promote a greater understanding of Western culture and the harm of multiculturalism in American society that college Republicans do not address."
YWC's message is for both those who associate themselves with Republicans and Democrats, Lindgren said.
"Specifically addressing the point of multiculturalism, an individual does not need to be a Republican or Democrat to understand the challenges multiculturalism poses and the problems associated with seeking to differentiate cultures," he said.
The purpose of the group's opposition to multiculturalism is to unify, according to DeAnna.
"America has a lot of different kinds of people here," he said in the e-mail. "Something has to hold us together."
Tancredo's talk expressed the group's goal to be as inclusive as possible, DeAnna said.
"[Tancredo] stated that people - regardless of race, religion or background - can become part of this country and identify proudly with American history and as part of the American people," he said in the e-mail.
You can reach this staff writer at news@theeagleonline.com.
