Students take to Stamp to protest against conservative influencer Will Witt
Protester tries to hand conservative speaker and PragerU affiliate Will Witt a KN95 mask (Aaron Wright/The Black Explosion)
Students gathered in front of the Stamp Student Union to protest against the conservative speaker and PragerU affiliate Will Witt during a book signing on Tuesday.
Witt is a content creator for PragerU, a media company known for promoting conservative viewpoints. Witt is also known to make statements on his social media that are anti-immigrant, anti-vaccination, anti-LGBTQ+ and other traditionally conservative stances.
The event, which was hosted by UMD’s chapter of Turning Point USA, featured a meet and greet with Witt in addition to promoting his new book, “How to Win Friends and Influence Enemies: Taking on Liberal Arguments with Logic and Humor.”
When promotional materials for the event appeared on campus, word quickly spread all over social media.
“Social media [platforms] like Reddit, and the various GroupMe accounts. I saw a poster about the counter-protest,” said Marquiss Griggs, an architecture major and one of the many onlookers at the protest.
“There are real-life people who are vulnerable to this or put in danger by what people like Will Witt have to say, and their presence on campus is a dangerous thing with what people are willing to do in their name … You gotta fight that,” said protester Matt Herskovitz, who double majors in English and government and politics.
While there were no organizers for the protest, the student protesters were all united in their scorn for Witt, PragerU, and Turning Point USA. The protestors stood in front of Stamp with signs saying “Fascists Don’t Get Platforms,” “Will Witt is a Racist Liar” and “Toilet Paper USA.”
Row of Turning Point USA Posters in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union building (Aaron Wright/The Black Explosion)
Witt is known to make statements on his social media that are anti-immigrant, anti-vaccination, and anti-LGBTQ+, among other conservative stances.
When Witt arrived at Stamp, the protesters immediately got into a debate with him. At one point, a protester tries to hand Witt a mask because of UMD’s mask policy. Witt declined the offer and showed he brought a bandana as his face covering. This debate quickly brought the attention of onlookers, which made the crowd bigger.
As the event began, counter-protesters and people who came to see Witt’s talk could not come in due to the union’s staff closing doors as soon as the event started. One of these people was Lisa Ruth, who said she was at the Capitol insurrection on January 6. She said that the insurrection was planned by people on the left and right, but no Trump supporters were present during the Capitol insurrection.
“I was there during a planned attack on the Capitol, by either very far right and very far left people. The Trump people were not there. They wear our clothes but we were not them. You see who walked in the Capital, and it’s all coming out now, all the data’s out,” said Ruth.
While protesters came out against Witt and debated among his supporters, they criticized the University of Maryland’s choice to allow Witt to come to campus.
“I think everyone has a right to speak and do whatever they want to say. But it’s also, you know, we’re paying to be here and we shouldn’t be paying to have these people come and speak if we don’t want them to be there,” said protestor Katie Urquhart, a history major who heard about Witt’s book signing and the protest in her history class.
Similarly, Griggs commented on how allowing someone such as Witt onto campus is irresponsible on the university’s part because of a portion of the student population.
“I think it’s irresponsible due to the large population of [people of color] students on campus. I understand everybody has freedom of speech, but at the same time… the climate that we’re in today with the protest that happened with George Floyd… you have to be responsible about it. Especially if we’re supposed to be promoting getting vaccinated, wearing our masks, and staying COVID safe,” said Griggs.
Protester holds sign that says “Fascists Don’t Get Platforms” (Aaron Wright/The Black Explosion)
The protest ran from 6 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. And towards the end, the number of protesters shrank from a crowd of dozens to a small group of students. Despite this, they were content with the message they hoped to spread.
“If you [the university administration] actually want to stand for anything as a school, if you want to protect your students and not just cash their paychecks … if you actually want to care about anything … you just can’t have this, it’s absurd. It’s just complete ignorance to everything at play,” said Herskovitz.