Students at Towson University are working to organize a white advocacy union to support those who suffer from discrimination.

The union was proposed in September by Matthew Heimbach, a senior U.S. history major, in a Sept. 2 letter to the editor of Towson’s student newspaper, The Towerlight. The letter said organizing a white student union would explore “one of the final frontiers of equality at (Towson)” that has been absent due to “political correctness.”

The white student union would be able to provide “a safe place where white students can go” if discriminated against, as well as educate students about the history and culture of Western and European civilizations. The union would also advocate traditional “white” values and equality among other ethnic groups, Heimbach said.

“We need to enjoy the positiveness of Western culture,” Heimbach said.

There are “blatant double standards” today, he said, which state that it is okay for all cultures except Caucasians to proudly boast their heritage.

“Most white students have an identity of sorts but don’t know how to embrace it,” he said.

Heimbach formed a similar group at Towson a year ago called Youth for Western Civilization, which was advised by Richard Vatz, a professor of mass communication and communication studies. Heimbach said the group was designed to highlight the “heroes of the west” and act as a forum for students to discuss immigration, multiculturalism and other political issues of the day.

Vatz said in an email that he “never had an unpleasant conversation” with Heimbach while he advised YWC, but over time, he felt less comfortable serving as an advisor.

Vatz eventually decided to leave the group after he attended a Unity in the Community Campus Forum meeting last year and was given an article written by Heimbach that contained controversial political and cultural views, Vatz said in a March 29 Red Maryland blog.

The article contained frightening rhetoric such as “referring to political opponents as ‘cancer,’ using the words Islam and Muslim disparagingly, and referencing ‘disgusting degenerates that make up our opposition,’” Vatz said in the blog.

The professor said in the blog that he could not “in good conscience advise a group that attacks people or groups personally or tactlessly.”

Shortly after Vatz resigned as advisor, the YWC folded.

Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs for Diversity Victor Collins said in an email that while he disagrees with some of Heimbach’s views, Heimbach “has every right to organize a student organization,” as long as it adheres to university standards and policies.

But, Collins said, establishing a white student union at a predominately white university is “redundant” because there is no evidence of anti-white discrimination on campus.

“In my opinion (and I point out that this is only my opinion, not the university’s stance), this movement makes very little sense unless you view it as an attempt to draw publicity to some other cause that remains unstated,” Collins said.

Those who believe white students do not need an advocacy group because they are in the majority express “barely concealed white racism,” Heimbach said. The university’s unwillingness to support the group reveals “top-down discrimination” at Towson, he said.

Said Heimbach: “They hide behind free speech and policies and rules, but they don’t believe in it.”

Published on October 11, 2012 at 1:39 am

Contact Andrew: asmuckel@syr.edu