COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Texas A&M University hosted white nationalist speaker Richard Spencer, as well as a massive pro-diversity demonstration across the street.
Spencer, the self-described inventor of the alt-right movement, drew about 400 people to his speech Tuesday evening, some of them booing him as he spoke, at the school's Memorial Student Center. An online petition opposing his presence on campus gained more than 10,000 signatures. Across the street at Kyle Field, the school's football stadium, a "unity event" was held in which those in attendance shouted "Aggies Unite!" It drew more than 2,000 people.
"America, at the end of the day, belongs to the white man. Texas is a wonderful place to live and there are a lot of white men's bones in the ground to make that happen. This country does belong to white people -- culturally, socially and politically," Spencer told the audience.
Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp told the crowd at the football stadium his school is no place for racist oratory.
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"If you're a purveyor of hate and divisiveness and you want to spew that kind of racism, this is the last campus on earth that you want to come to. There is no place, and there is no university where love and respect for each other and loyalty and commitment to each other is stronger than Texas A&M University."
Added Michael Young, college president, "We're all so beautifully different. Our cultures, our shapes, our sizes, our ethnicities, our histories, our backgrounds, but our differences enrich us. Our differences make us more complete. Our message will always be louder. It will always be more true. It will always be stronger. It will always mean more. It will always do more. No matter what we do it is fearless."
Protesters gathered and scuffled with police outside the building where Spencer spoke; two people, neither a Texas A&M student, were arrested, campus police spoke.
Spencer gained attention last month after a video surfaced of him at the annual conference of the National Policy Institute. In it, he praised President-elect Donald Trump's election victory and it showed his supporters appearing to offer Nazi-style salutes as Spencer shouted, "Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!"
He was invited to Texas A&M by alumni Preston Wiginton, who has regularly invited far-right speakers to speak at the campus.
