Viewpoint: After University of Florida turmoil, fight for tolerance is key

Richard Spencer, the president of the National Policy Institute (NPI) and a self-proclaimed white nationalist, spoke at the University of Florida last Thursday, October 19. When Spencer arrived on campus, he was welcomed with a less than enthusiastic audience of protesters. Students from the university, as well as groups from around the state, gathered together to protest against Spencer’s speech.

There were individuals on social media against Spencer’s visit who tried to dissuade protesters from rallying together to ignore what he had to say. Some audience members who did attend booed and shouted over him while he spoke. According to reports, protesters chanted phrases like “Go home, Spencer.”

Spencer then provoked protesters by asking them “[what they hoped to achieve]” by interjecting. Aside from his visit, some people were upset about the $500,000 spent to increase security in anticipation for Spencer’s visit.

“The police presence was strong,” said Ian Cohen, a reporter for The Independent Florida Alligator, the student newspaper at the University of Florida. “There were officers and Florida Highway State Troopers lining the street in front of the Phillips Center and roaming the protest areas. I didn’t see any confrontations between the police and the protesters. For the most part, I thought the police did a good job.”

Despite the effectiveness of the police presence, some argued that instead of spending a lot of money on security, the university could have cancelled the visit all together. Nonetheless, many were able to gather together and peacefully rally against Spencer’s visit.

“The environment was almost surreal. Many of the people I talked to were in disbelief that they were there protesting against Nazis or white supremacists,” said Cohen. “For the most part, it was a very peaceful protest. I didn’t see any violence or any fights break out, mostly because there were so few Spencer supporters there, or because it was so difficult to identify them just because of the sheer amount of anti-Spencer protesters.”

University of Florida students aren’t the first to protest on a college campus and they certainly won’t be the last. While Spencer’s visit didn’t achieve what he might have hoped, which was, according to him, an effort to “wake up white Americans and whites around the world, it has proved beneficial in uniting people amongst the chaos that is the state of our nation.”

No, the nation won’t become a perfect place. No, not every one person will hold the same beliefs. Nor will everyone agree with what the next person has to say.

However, what needs to be changed, evident from Thursday’s protest, is an understanding from opposing parties that everyone deserves the opportunity to share their opinions without attack. In order to encourage difficult and important conversations, we need to learn to agree to disagree so that we can move forward as a nation and fight for tolerance.