If some in the Republican Party remain baffled as to why the GOP cannot capture the Hispanic vote even though Hispanics are described - at least in GOP circles - as conservative on social issues, they might want to focus on the batshitery that came down at the University of Texas where the Young Conservatives of Texas ("YCT") created a Facebook event detailing a game titled “Catch an Illegal Immigrant.” One has to wonder if some future "games" will involve (i) disenfranchising black voters and (ii) advanced gay bashing. Thankfully, the unvarnished racism embodied in the "game" wasn't missed by Hispanics and their allies and protests were unleashed even as YCT decided to cancel the "game." The Daily Beast looks at this PR disaster for YCT and their Republican allies. Here are article excerpts:
The game was canceled, but the protest went on anyway. By early afternoon on Wednesday, some 500 students had gathered on the steps of the main building of The University of Texas at Austin—chanting, holding signs, and wearing t-shirts with a single word stamped across them: undocumented. As Ugly Betty actress America Ferrera took the stage at 12:30, even the Frisbee-playing students on a nearby lawn joined in. “I am the daughter of immigrants,” Ferrera shouted into a megaphone, and the crowd, some holding fluorescent signs reading “Aliens Live in Space,” erupted into applause.
The rally—the culmination of days of heated campus-wide debate—came in response to a controversial event planned by the college chapter of The Young Conservatives of Texas, or YCT, which describes itself as a non-partisan, conservative youth organization.
On Monday, YCT created a Facebook event detailing a game titled “Catch an Illegal Immigrant.” The premise of the game—set to take place Wednesday—was that some members of the organization would walk around campus labeled as illegal immigrants. “Any UT student who catches one of these ‘illegal immigrants’ and brings them back to our table will receive a $25 gift card,” the event listing read. “The purpose of this event is to spark a campus-wide discussion about the issue of illegal immigration and how it affects our everyday lives.”
The proposed game followed an earlier incident in September where the same group held a bake sale by charging students different prices for baked goods as an exemplification of affirmative action. Latino students were charged $1 for brownies while white students were charged $2.
Administration officials were to quick to join the outcry. First was Gregory J. Vincent, the Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement, who said YCT was “contributing to an environment of exclusion and disrespect among our students, faculty and staff by sending a message that certain students do not belong on our campus.” Bill Powers, president of the college, released a statement saying, “The proposed Young Conservatives of Texas event is completely out of line with the values we espouse at The University of Texas at Austin.”
[T]he proposed event had already grabbed national headlines, even drawing a response from the state’s gubernatorial candidates. So the ULI forged ahead with its counter-protest, and students from across the state of Texas came to join them from Rice University, Texas A&M, and Southern Methodist University.
As I said in a prior post, far too many of today's conservatives and Republicans are not nice or decent people.
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