Kamala Harris ‘roast’ draws protesters to USC

Wednesday night’s “roast” of Kamala Harris, hosted by Uncensored America in the Russell House ballroom, was met with protests outside the University of South Carolina’s student union. 

Columbia area police anticipated backlash from the event and deployed officers to Greene Street outside the Russell House. Barricades also were set up on Greene Street earlier in the day. 

More than 100 people attended the event in person, and 200 or so watched it in an overflow watch room.

Despite the heavy police presence, the small crowd of protesters behind the barricades remained peaceful. The group consisted of professors and students agitating against the event’s nationally known guest speakers — Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and far-right political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos. 

Sophomore Molly Asher was among the protesters. She said allowing the controversial roast to happen contradicts the inclusive environment the university tries to establish.

“I think it’s embarrassing that we as USC always promote, ‘Oh, inclusivity, we have gay organizations, we have events for everyone, we love everyone,’ and they’re hosting hate speech people who are racist, sexist, homophobic,” Asher said. 

More than 27,000 people earlier signed a petition asking the university to disallow the event, citing the speakers’ pattern of racist, misogynist, homophobic and violent language.

The backlash from the student body and the Columbia community prompted a response from USC administration. 

In an email to students Aug. 27, university President Michael Amiridis wrote that censoring the group would only garner further support for them, and the values established in the Carolinian Creed “are not threatened or altered by the presence of extremists and provocateurs on our campus.” 

USC professor Yvonne Ivory said the university’s response to opposition to the roast makes it seem like the Carolinian Creed does not apply to Uncensored America and its speakers the same way it does to students. 

“The creed is something that is our standard of behavior that we always, as teachers, hold our students to,” Ivory said. “We use it all the time as a way of saying these are the norms. … To find out that actually our Carolinian Creed is more of an aspirational concept than an actual creed, that made me feel slightly upset. And that’s the reason why I came out.” 

Uncensored America announced prior to the event on Wednesday that it would be suing USC for violating its right to free speech. Uncensored America founder Sean Semanko cited student government’s denial of school funds for the event as grounds for the suit. 

Inside the event, Yiannopoulos listed by name the individual student government members and faculty members the organization planned to sue. 

Ivory said that just as Uncensored America can exercise its right to free speech by hosting the roast, she too can exercise her right to free speech by protesting. 

“These people who have come here – people who have a record of hateful speech, of racist speech, misogyny, Islamophobia – they’ve come, they’re getting a kind of a platform on the basis of the fact that this university protects free speech,” she said. “And so I’m out here also exercising my right to free speech.”