UW-Madison progressives claim Young Americans for Freedom is hate group, ‘create hostile environment’ needs ‘ diversity training’
The Student Coalition for Progress at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently pushed a petition that attacks the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter as a hate group, stating that they “create a hostile environment on campus” and the members should be subjected to “intensive diversity training.”
The College Fix detailed the petition and the account of the attack, writing that the document titled ““Denounce Young Americans for Freedom and the alt-right” was launched about a month after YAF hosted conservative columnist Ben Shapiro on campus to speak about microaggressions, safe spaces and free speech.
“The petition decried Shapiro’s visit, claiming it made minority students feel unsafe, and accused Shapiro of denying ‘systematic and institutional violences’ against so-called marginalized communities,” The Fix wrote.
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The petition also claimed “members of YAF have further contributed to making campus a hostile environment by attempting to out and misgender LGBTQIA+ students as well as have individually confronted and made unsafe prominent members of student government.”
The Fix notes that: A petition update also blamed YAF social media posts for alerting the news media about the university’s new “Problem of Whiteness” class, and encouraged supporters to file a “hate and bias” report if they have been traumatized by YAF members or the national outrage news of the class prompted.
The College Fix broke the story about the “Problem of Whiteness” class, learning of its existence from a Multicultural Student Center email, not from YAF social media, as the petition asserts.
UW YAF Chair Kara Bell called the petition “complete defamation” in a phone interview with The College Fix.
“They [Student Coalition for Progress] released the petition and tried to make it a huge deal, but all of their accusations are completely false,” Bell said. “The administration didn’t even seem to know what this petition was talking about. We don’t know who started the petition but the last thing we would ever want to do is target a student.”
Other conservative campus groups rushed to support YAF after the petition’s dissemination.
UW College Republicans Chair Jake Lubenow called the petition “inflammatory” in a statement and asked the administration to condemn it.
“The petition does not make a single claim substantiated with evidence of any kind,” Lubenow wrote.
The petition has been shut down after failing to meet a required number of signatures, according to YAF spokesperson Emily Jashinsky.
“I checked the petition on change.org this week and found it shut down after falling way short of its signature goal,” Jashinsky stated. “People generally appreciate having a group of informed and vocal conservatives on campus to bring ideological diversity to the community and they don’t support the radical Left’s hilariously ill-fated attempts to censor YAF.”
“Wisconsin YAF is an awesome group of energetic student activists who are not in any way threatened by this silly petition,” she added. “In fact, the panic the chapter has induced in campus leftists is an indication of their success. The Left is desperate to shut down YAF’s impactful advocacy for traditional conservative ideas because they know it is really making a difference on campus.”
