Preaching to the Choir:
Walk Out Protest Leaves YAF Members to Hear Anti-Immigration Speech

Philip Rodney Moon

Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) hosted anti-immigration speaker Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) in Conrad Hall Thursday night, a little over a week since hosting anti-gay speaker Ryan Sorba. The speech, in which Krikorian spoke against illegal immigration and for reducing legal immigration, was the subject of protest lead by MSU student group Chicanos Y Latinos Unidos (CLU).

CLU had a press conference Tuesday, October 2nd to denounce YAF bringing Krikorian to speak on campus. They addressed the administration, who they accused of facilitating and allowing YAF to preach hate speech and make students feel threatened on campus.

“This administration is very progressive on free speech and it’s enforcement of free speech,” said Doug Schraufnagle of the Young Democratic Socialists (YDS).

Schraufnagle cited the administration’s policies that allowed students to bring speakers on campus and to distribute literature. He said that the administration needed to make a decision when free speech turn to discrimination, or hate speech.

“It’s the position of the Young Democratic Socialists that there needs to be something that decides when this line is crossed,” Schraufnagle said.

Sierra Lopez, a Chicana student, said YAF had attempted to turn the debate on hate speech around, accusing liberals of hate action for opposing YAF. Lopez said the administration of MSU were the “real masters of trickery” for not taking a harder line on YAF.

“Step up MSU faculty and administration. Fight homophobia and injustice. Why? Because I am, we have been, and we’re tired of waiting for you,” Lopez said.

The protesters gathered Thursday at the Rock to march to Conrad Hall. They chanted “What do we want? Respect!” as they marched from the Rock toward Conrad.

After a brief rest while they waited for the speech to begin, the group approached Conrad in silence. They paused for a moment to hold up their signs. Before they entered they were briefed by an MSU Police officer about rules and what was allowed.

Kyle Bristow, this time not wearing his trademark cowboy hat, introduced Krikorian. Krikorian opened up his speech with a doughnut analogy. Before he finished explaining the analogy the group of protesters stood up silently and walked out of the protest.

With the protesters gone, a half dozen YAF members and a group of MSU administrators were all that were left in the room.

Outside protesters found humor in the doughnut analogy, alluding to the statement that brown people are doughnuts.

“We are churros!” said Gabriel Alcazar, one of the CLU organizers.

Alczar said that the demonstration was a success.

“I think it went just as we planned it, and I think it was beautiful. I think it made a statement that needed to be made,” Alcazar said of the event.

After the crowd dispersed a few protesters returned for the question and answer part of the speech. Krikorian was questioned about his statements that immigration was a cause of organized crime. He said he didn’t really believe that discrimination against immigrants contributed to immigrants choosing crime.

“What creates [crime] is sort of outsiderness…Outsider status almost certainly does contributor to the outsiders sticking together...and that’s what creates the preconditions for criminal organizations,” Krikorian said. “That’s not so much a function of discrimination though. When that otherness goes away after several generations, especially if you stop immigration the same people… don’t create the preconditions for that kind of situation.”

When asked about the effect of Prohibition on organized crime, Krikorian didn’t give it much of an answer.
Krikorian was also asked about the CIS ties to John Tanton, a white supremacist that funded the Federation for American Immigration Reform. While admitting CIS was a spinoff group, he said the groups were different.

“I don’t know too much about Dr. Tanton. I’ve met him a number of times. I’m not qualified to judge the claims made against him. In a sense we’re a spin off, but that was twenty years ago. We’re an independent group. We do our thing, they do theirs,” Krikorian said.

Krikorian then discussed the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

“The Montgomery advertiser… did a long series on the SPLC. Basically they concluded it was a money raising scam. I’m not in the slightest interesting in what the SPLC has to say,” Krikorian said.

When asked about a recent post by YAF that called the new doctorate program in Chicano and Latino studies a “Doctorate in Savagery,” Krikorian refused to answer.