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.

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.

“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.

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.