It might shock you to hear this, but the AU College Republicans are up to something really racist.

On Friday, January 30, the club announced that Paul Ingrassia, a relatively high-ranking Trump administration staffer, will be appearing as part of their Speaker Series on February 18 in the SIS Founder’s room. Now, I’m on the record as being nothing but contemptuous of the Trump administration, so it’s not a shocker that I’m unhappy about this. I know that ‘Neo-Nazi’ is a very hefty label – one that, as a Jew, I don’t throw around lightly. I’m not labeling Ingrassia a Neo-Nazi for his relation to the Trump administration. Here’s some of what I am calling him one for:

• After being likened to a member of the Hitler Youth, Ingrassia stated that, “I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time.”
• He openly rejects the notion of all men being created equal and says it should be removed from American dogma.
• He has referred to straight white men as an intellectually superior group that deserves prioritization in education.
• He has called for the descendants of slaves to pay reparations to the descendants of slave owners.
• He has provided legal representation to the Tate brothers, who, amongst other things, recently broadcast themselves dancing to Ye’s Neo-Nazi anthem “Heil Hitler.”
• Similarly, he described Andrew Tate, who did time in prison alongside his brother for human trafficking and rape in Romania, as an “extraordinary man” who had been targeted by “the global elites.”
• He attended a rally for Neo-Nazi internet personality Nick Fuentes, who was also in the aforementioned “Heil Hitler” video, and has come to his defense online.
• He worked at the National Constitutional Law Union, which proudly describes itself as the antithesis to the ACLU.
• He referred to Martin Luther King Jr. as the “George Floyd of the 1960s,” and that the holiday in the former’s honor should be “tossed into the seventh circle of Hell.”
• He has stated that “Blacks behave that way because that’s their natural state,” and that, “all of Africa is a shithole.”
• He has advised people to, “Never trust a Ch*naman or Indian.”
• Did I mention his self-described Nazi streak?

Any one of these would make the AUCR’s decision to platform Ingrassia suspect. All of them combined make it morally contemptible, in every sense of the word. Now, I’m sure that the club views all of these as hallmarks of a proper conservative, and the list above as his career highlights, but to me (and, I hope, the general population of American University), this is disgusting, deplorable, and a stain on the school’s reputation.

How could anyone at AU approve this? How can a school that touts its international community give a venue to a virulent racist? How can a school with such a large Jewish community, one that it claims to care for to the point of banning pro-Palestine clubs from campus, platform a man who proudly claims to have a “Nazi streak?” Does the school agree with his stance that straight white men should be given priority in educational settings, or are they just fine with legitimizing someone who argues that? Are the College Republicans really that favored?

I wish I did not have to ask these questions. I wish this school was actually the bastion against antisemitism it claims to be. Above all, I wish that our “peers” in AUCR were not so proud to promote divisions within our campus community. But that’s exactly what they are, and that’s exactly what they’re doing. And the worst part, to me?

I’m sure they can stoop even lower.