Conservative student group stirs at WSU

PULLMAN – Since its creation last fall, a conservative student group at Washington State University has set up a chain-link fence on campus to protest illegal immigration, launched a controversial newspaper and rallied in favor of “Straight Pride.”

The goal of Youth for Western Civilization is to revive Western civilization and make it the dominant culture in the U.S., said Phil Tignino, student coordinator for the seven-member WSU chapter of the national organization.

“I don’t think the U.S. should be known as the country that is home to every culture, language and belief system in the world,” said Tignino, a 22-year-old political science major from Los Angeles.

The national group has attracted the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit group that tracks extremist hate groups across the country.

Heidi Beirich, the center’s director of research, said YWC has not been listed as a hate group, but that it shares many views with white nationalist groups.

“White nationalists are the guys who pump out the books about race and IQs,” she said. “White nationalism suits people who are educated, and is where most of the thinking goes on now in terms of white groups.”

Tignino dismissed Beirich’s observations and said groups like SPLC are paid to call conservatives racists.

But Tignino himself has loose ties to a reputed extremist arrested this week by federal agents on an illegal weapons possession charge. Tignino was a Facebook friend of Jeremiah Daniel “J.D.” Hop, a 29-year-old Pullman man arrested on the federal gun charge Wednesday. Hop described himself as an anti-race-mixing activist on the racist website Vanguard News Network.

On Wednesday, Hop’s Facebook page, which has since apparently been altered, listed Dr. William Pierce, the late founder of the National Alliance and a leading neo-Nazi, as one of his inspirations.

On Thursday morning, Tignino was no longer listed as one of Hop’s friends on the social networking site. Tignino said he only knew Hop from construction work.

“I just did drywall for him,” Tignino said. “I haven’t even talked to him in a few months. If those allegations are true it’s unfortunate that he did it, and should be tried to the full extent of the law. It’s unfortunate that such a situation had to happen.”

The WSU group shares resources and events with a two-person chapter at the University of Idaho. One of YWC’s current works in progress is a newspaper called the Northwest Alternative. Since its launch in February, the two issues of the newspaper have featured headlines such as “The Hypocrisy of Tolerance” and “The Changing of the Guard.”

Tignino said he thinks the WSU administration should not pay for facilities that promote ethnic identity, especially with the deepening budget cuts to the university. He said he doubts students of Western descent would be able to get their own space in the Compton Union Building paid for by WSU.

“Why do those people get preference over others?” he said. “They have facilities given to them by student fees and the administration, and it just seems counterproductive. They want to create a cohesive climate where we can all get along but it’s creating differences.”

Manuel Acevedo, the director of multicultural student services, said the university administration has a responsibility to provide services to students transitioning to life at WSU so that they can successfully graduate. He said the multicultural facilities are used by students of all cultures and are supportive of all students, regardless of ethnicity.

“Most of us are the result of the encounter of several cultures,” he said. “There is a need to continue valuing, understanding, embracing and celebrating the diversity that all of us bring to the community.”

Tignino said that although he has never been called a bigot, it is a stigma that follows a white, conservative male. However, the point of YWC is to “spit back” in opponents’ faces and give conservatives hope, he said.