A partial list of events that have garnered public interest in San Luis Obispo since the last SLO City News issue: a protest was held in Mission Plaza to pressure recalcitrant members of the SLO County Board of Supervisors into accepting the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary; a vigil was held a day earlier there with 300 community members turning out to support victims of sweeping new national immigration policies; two days prior, comedian and CNN television host W. Kamau Bell entertained an audience of 1,200 at the Cal Poly PAC with his show, “The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in about an Hour”; and oh, yes, the “Alt-Right” speaker Milo Yiannopoulos drew a crowd of around 500 at the University’s Spanos Theatre as a stop on his “Dangerous Faggot” tour.
The last item, coupled with protesters burning the Confederate Stars and Bars along with a Nazi Swastika flag, and overwhelming law enforcement preparation for an underwhelming number of protesters set the stage for a week of local headlines.
The Cal Poly Office of University Diversity and Inclusivity and the Student Union hosted Bell as part of a “Unite” week of events and offered the show as an alternative to the Cal Poly College Republicans club’s long planned effort to bring Yiannopoulos.
Denise Isom, the Office’s interim associate director, said the events were in such close proximity because of constraints on the campus’ available venues.
“The event was organized at the same time to meet the demands of students following the election,” Isom said, adding that “teach-ins” and other events started the week.
Cal Poly had braced for the type of battle that Yiannopoulos’ planned visit to UC Berkley did draw the next day, a destructive response with 1,000 protestors forcing the speaker to cancel.
In San Luis Obispo however the crowd maxed out at 150, taking over the sidewalk, with a core group of 20 masked protestors pounding on a temporary fence outside Spanos on Grand Avenue. They were consistently outnumbered from 4:30 p.m. till 8 p.m. by students and other spectators taking pictures as well as by the 109 officers on campus for the event.
Aside from violent rhetoric, specifically an chant of, “Kill all Nazis” that went up briefly – while an anonymous individual attempted to burn a flame retardant covered version of the swastika flag that was the German standard from 1935 till 1945 – the protests were peaceful in nature.
Both Cal Poly University Police Chief George Hughes and City of San Luis Obispo Police Chief Deanna Cantrell were on hand to coordinate response.
Eight of the officers attached to the County of SLO’s SWAT team and four of the City’s bicycle patrol officers were also on hand. However the officers clad in riot gear behind the fence were on loan from other campuses in the CSU system.
Inside Spanos Theatre, Yiannopoulos, known for his conflicted mix of personality politics as a Breitbart News website editor, conservative British pundit and a gay man, kicked off by encouraging white males to apply for his reverse affirmative action grant. He then delivered a talk against abortion. There were reportedly no hecklers or other disturbances during the talk.
On the other side of the Performing Arts Center complex, inside the same building in fact, W. Kamau Bell gave a wide-ranging talk touching on why and how racism is expressed in everyday life and addressed race as a social construct.
“This is the time for us to be having uncomfortable conversations,” he said. “The people next door are gathered to say that their lives matter, that their White lives matter. Yeah we know.”
The comedian made that remark as part of a discussion of the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement and All Lives Matter response.
“What we can say is that ‘All Lives Should Matter,’ but to say that ‘All Lives Matter’ was made up as a direct attack against Black Lives. No one ever said, ‘Hey, All Lives Matter’ before Black people stood up.”
In another incongruous display he urged his White audience members to borrow a page from the Black Power movement of the 1960’s and embrace positive feelings about their race.
“White people need to connect with the positive side of whiteness,” he said, “…because when you leave here you’re literally going to need to fight that evil White pride.”
