Last-minute student event upstages TPUSA speaker
This story follows up on “Admin at MTU subverts student self-governance,” and “After paying conservative speaker, questions linger, answers are sparse.”
While a conservative speaker implored his audience to “Put God First!” dozens of student organizations, local businesses, churches, and artisans celebrated diversity, shared art, and danced to live music late into the night at Spring FLARE.
TPUSA speaker Brandon Tatum spoke Tuesday at Michigan Tech, but was overshadowed by an event organized last minute by students that attracted hundreds more attendees. Despite opaque communication from the University around campus safety protocol, both events occurred with little incident, save for a verbal altercation between a student and Brandon Tatum during his event.
Tatum’s Talk
Brandon Tatum’s event “BE BRAVE with Brandon Tatum” took place in the largest classroom on campus, Fisher 135. Students and community members were asked to sign in on a laptop before filing into the lecture hall that prominently featured a QR code to “Ask Brandon a question.”
Tatum began his event by addressing the funding controversy last month that threatened to prevent the usage of student funds to cover $3,500 of his $10,000 speaking fee. Tatum expressed his thanks to Turning Point staff and school administrators for securing funding for his event.
“I'm very thankful that you guys fought for me to be here, right now in this place, and I believe God has called us to do something special here, and I appreciate you guys,” he said.
Tatum also sought to “set the record straight” regarding opponents of funding his event, citing a history of queer-phobic rhetoric.
“If you’re gay, straight, trans. It ain't none of my business, I don't care. You don't pay my bills, I don't pay your bills,” he said.
Brandon Tatum responds to a bi-racial student asking why Tatum does not consider Barack Obama to be black. Photo by Juxta Sprague.
During Tatum’s hour-long event he expressed a number of opinions including that, “drag-queen story hour [...] is leading towards pedophilia,” that “America is not a racist country,” and that “Black Lives Matter was nothing but a money grab.”
Tatum also offered up some anecdotes from his time as a police officer.
“Everyone I arrested out here smoking drugs, doing crime, and destroying communities, they had free healthcare. They'd go and get bludgeoned, and drunk, and get to the hospital and spend $30,000 on their medical bill, and they don't give a flying flip.”
After stating that Barack Obama is “not Black,” a student with a pride pin in the front row stood up and loudly asked Tatum to clarify his statement. After a brief back and forth discussing Obama’s bi-racial heritage, Tatum stated, “With all due respect, Barack Obama isn’t Black because he has a drop of Black in him. [...] What makes my son Black? He is 50/50. He is half White, half Black. There’s no way to call him Black unless you want the White race to be pure.”
Tatum then queried the student on their own racial heritage, to which they responded, “I’m White and Hispanic, there’s multitudes.”
Tatum also spoke at length about how he considered redlining to be a myth.
“It's not about redlining that I saw, or anything that had anything to do with the government, the reason that Black communities were suffering so much. It was culture and personal responsibility. [...] Unfortunately, Black people, in my opinion, in inner cities have adopted this culture that's destructive.”
Tatum went on to blame Black people defaulting on home loans as a principle cause of the 2008 financial crash.
Tatum concluded his event by saying, “If you forget everything I say, just put God first.”
Caleb Glenn, the president of Turning Point USA at Michigan Tech, said the event had over 300 attendees.
“The event was a great success. Both students and members of the community came out to show their support. I believe that the impact on campus was a step towards more people, regardless of political belief, standing up for what they believe in.”
Glenn also stated that his student organization aims to host at least one speaker per semester.
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Due to numerous questions and concerns about potential violence related to Turning Point USA’s event, this reporter reached out to the Michigan Tech administrators to better understand how the University evaluates the safety of on campus events and public speakers.
University General Counsel Sarah Schulte explained that they have professionals in risk analysis who evaluate every event and presenter on campus. Schulte did not provide specifics on whom the professionals are, beyond that Michigan Tech’s department of Public Safety and Police Services is the lead on the evaluation process.“If there were an instance where there were actual threats of violence, and like I've said we haven't had that since I have been here at Michigan Tech, then I would be pulled into that conversation and others in leadership would be pulled into that conversation."
Schulte, when asked if students, faculty, or staff had any input on the safety evaluation process, said that anyone can bring information forward, but that decision-making power remains solely with University professionals.“When specific allegations are made regarding a speaker with respect to incitement of violence, that is something that is reviewed to determine whether or not that is a concern for the speech that is anticipated to be given here.”
When asked how students, faculty, or staff could relay their concerns about on campus events, the University provided a link to the Dean of Students office Report a Concern page.“Concerns about events can be directed to the organizations who host the events and to the appropriate university professionals and/or units responsible for overseeing the event.”
The University declined to comment on the recent reassignment of the former Dean of Students Dr. Wallace Southerland to an advisory role within the University and directed this reporter to an announcement made in Tech Today regarding “Leadership Transitions”.
The University also stated that they have not been made aware of any allegations or complaints against Turning Point USA’s speaker Brandon Tatum.
Spring FLARE Exceeds Expectations
Spring FLARE (Festival of Love, Arts, Radiance, & Empowerment) was hosted in the lobby of the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. Before the event even began it was bustling with activity from all the student groups, businesses, and artists setting up booths and chatting with each other. A steady stream of students and community members soon joined the event as the first band was tuning.
The first half of the four-hour event was a fair featuring 33 booths. It included 20 student organizations, a mix of ten businesses and community organizations, and eight artists. Several local faith communities were also present, with clergy and staff helping run booths and interacting with students. The second half of the event was a live concert with half a dozen bands and a dance floor.
The size and success of FLARE came as a surprise even to those involved in organizing the event. Gabriel Ahrendt, a doctorate student in the Geological Sciences and co-organizer of the event, spoke about the experience of making FLARE a reality in less than three weeks.
“We filled up our lineup. We filled out all of the booths. [...] It was very nice to just walk downtown, and walk between businesses and see how many people had heard about the TPUSA event and who had wanted to support our event because of it. [...] It started out as a kind of counter event to the TPUSA thing, but then in the end when we started getting so much support from the community, we were like, why don't we just throw a big event that could be cool for everyone.”
In regard to event safety at FLARE, one of the event organizers and co-president of Keweenaw Pride, Kieran Rowan, stated that they had relied upon participants to create a culture that would stand up to hate. Additionally, they coordinated with trained supporters of the event to intervene should any conflicts arise.
“We did not directly [engage] with public safety or administration, as we wanted to emphasize our faith in the actions and beliefs of our community,” Rowan said.
Attendees of Spring FLARE converse and visit various booths in the lobby of the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. Photo by Juxta Sprague.
The last minute event was undoubtedly a hit, with many attendees and supporters expressing hope that this was just the start of an annual tradition.
William Keith, an associate professor in the Mathematical Sciences department, said, “The people who organized FLARE [...] certainly brought together a fantastic group of people, and I'd be happy to see more like this in the future.”
JoHannah Green, president of Michigan Tech’s Law Club, also expressed her interest in seeing FLARE return.
“Honestly, If this was an annual event, that would be amazing.”
The event finished up late in the evening with a full dance floor as the last band finished their set to cheers and applause.
The Rozsa Center reported 501 attendees at FLARE from their door clickers, in addition to an estimated 50 people running booths and facilitating the event.