Providence College bars Youth for Western Civilization event with Tom Tancredo

Tom Tancredo, AP file photo

Providence College on Wednesday barred Youth for Western Civilization (YWC), a student organization condemned by a liberal watchdog as a white nationalist group, from hosting an appearance by former congressman Tom Tancredo.

Tancredo instead gave a talk in Pawtucket, RI at a VFW hall, where protesters held signs outside condemning Tancredo's anti-immigrant rhetoric as hate speech, while some protesters chanted anti-racist slogans.

The Providence Journal Projo blog reported a crowd of 50 protesters were "holding signs in Spanish and English with messages like "No Human Being is Illegal," the crowd of about 50 chanted, "No Nazis, No fascists, No white supremacists. If you are against Tom Tancredo, raise your fist."

But later, about 300 protesters gathered to silently stand in opposition to Tancredo's talk wearing paper masks to "represent their diversity," Associated Press reported.

YWC, the student org hoping to hold the event, has been tagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center as "white nationalist," essentially a race-based hate group.

The YWC chapter at the University of North Carolina invited Tancredo, the group's "honorary chairman" who briefly ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 on an anti-immigration platform, to speak on campus.

Tancredo's speech last week was interrupted by student protesters attempting to shut down the event, and UNC campus police had to escort Tancredo from the room - one protester was subdued with pepper spray, according to reports. The incident led to an official apology from UNC's chancellor.

The UNC chapter of YWC reportedly paid Tancredo $3,000 for the appearance, according to UPI.

A Providence College spokesperson said the student chapter of YWC at the school was not an officially recognized campus group. "They asked very late in the semester when there was not enough time for the request to go through the usual channels," the spokesperson said, according to the Providence Journal.

College Republicans have backed away from YWC, but the organization has received funding from CPAC and the Leadership Institute, a nonprofit foundation that trains the next generation of conservative leaders, according to the website InsideHigherEd.com.

At the Projo blog, one commenter wrote the following anti-immigrant rant:

The immigrants can NO LONGER be sustained by the middle class. There are NO jobs here for them. The unskilled factory jobs have gone elsewhere. They bring down the standards for working class folks. Work for less pay and NO benefits. If you don't think that is a threat, see where we will be in 5-10 years. Come here legally, without your hand out and work for a living like the rest of us. ASSIMILATE or LEAVE!!!