To protest or not to protest?

Opponents of Milo Yiannopoulos are grappling with that question in the days leading up to the conservative provocateur’s sold-out event on the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus on Wednesday.

And it’s one that’s taken on additional gravity in the days since a man was shot during a demonstration at a Yiannopoulos appearance in Seattle.

Members of the anti-Milo crowd agree that they don’t like his message, but can’t settle on how best to express that sentiment. The debate has been playing out on social media and elsewhere.

Stay home and do nothing? Make picket signs and stand outside the CU Mathematics Building, where Yiannopoulos will speak at 7 p.m.? Attend a talk given by transgender actress and advocate Laverne Cox instead?

“I can see why people, especially the students and faculty of CU, would want to block him from speaking on their campus or to protest while he’s there,” said Boulder resident Jennifer Rose, who leads the Boulder County chapter of the Colorado Action Network, a political activism group. “On the other hand, he thrives on controversy. Indeed, it seems to be why he speaks at all, so protesting is akin to giving him oxygen.”

Rose said she would prefer to see a huge turnout to Cox’s sold-out speech, which is being held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Macky Auditorium. In an ideal world, no one will show up to Yiannopoulos’ talk, she added.

“Better that he fizzles out rather than gains more notoriety,” Rose said.

During Yiannopoulos’ speech at the University of Washington on Friday, a 34-year-old man was shot in the abdomen and critically wounded, and some protesters threw bricks, paint and other items at police officers, according to the Seattle Times.

A suspect in the shooting turned himself in to police.

Earlier this month, Yiannopoulos’ event at the University of California Davis was canceled 30 minutes before it was scheduled to start after protests erupted outside the venue.

Campus spokeswoman Deborah Mendez-Wilson said CU was “aware of what happened at the University of Washington and other recent events, and we continue to make plans for his appearance on Wednesday.”

“As is standard practice, we don’t comment on security preparations,” she added.

Counter-programming

Opponents of Yiannopoulos say he’s a troll who propagates hate speech. They point to his actions at other campuses he’s visited during his “Dangerous (Expletive) Tour.” The name of the speaking tour includes a gay slur.

Yiannopoulos, a gay editor for the “alt-right” website Breitbart News, mocked a transgender woman during talks at the University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota in December. He also poked fun at a professor at West Virginia University, calling him a “fat (expletive),” and had planned to dress up as a woman who said she was sexually assaulted at Columbia University, but that talk was postponed.

“Alt-right” is an offshoot of conservatism that has been described as mixing racism, white nationalism and populism.

Yiannopoulos, who was permanently banned from Twitter for inciting racist abuse against actress Leslie Jones, was invited to the Boulder campus by the CU College Republicans and by the CU chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative student activist group.

Though Yiannopoulos does not charge a speaking fee, $2,000 in student fees will be used to cover other costs for the event, such as security, parking and audio and visual equipment.

CU students, faculty members and community members have launched several petitions expressing their concern about Yiannopoulos’ visit.

One group organized a “BuffsUnited” event that will support a “shared vision for an inclusive, affirming campus” from 5 to 7 p.m. on the day of Yiannopoulos’ talk. Two student-fee funded boards also announced that Cox would be speaking on campus at the same time as the Yiannopoulos event.

After learning about the shooting and other protest actions at the University of Washington on Friday, Sam Flaxman, a CU assistant professor of ecology and evolutioary biology and one of the organizers of the BuffsUnited event, posted his thoughts on Facebook.

“For those of you planning to protest, please keep yourselves safe,” he wrote on the public Protest Milo Yiannopoulos at CU page, which is being organized by students at Fairview High School. “Don’t engage in violence or hateful rhetoric. As one of my elders said, ‘Hate is a psychosis; don’t let hate infect you.’ Let kindness and respect be the most obvious themes of your words, signs and actions.”

Flaxman told the Daily Camera that he plans to continue to reach out to people of all political persuasions and engage them in respectful conversations.

‘Resistance’ necessary

Though some people will, in effect, boycott the Yiannopoulos event by attending Cox’s talk, for others, that’s not enough.

Inviting Cox to campus on the same day as Yiannopoulos was a good move, but her speech won’t fulfill the same role as a traditional protest, said Jeremiah Traeger, a CU graduate student in chemical engineering.

“Ultimately, it would be good if we could ignore (Yiannopoulos), but ignoring him doesn’t really solve the problem,” Traeger said. “It would be best, at the very least, to show that there is resistance to this, that there’s more to the story.”

While he feels a protest is necessary, recent CU graduate and Boulder resident Albert Comeaux said he recognizes that some people may not feel safe holding a picket sign.

But those people who do feel comfortable protesting should show up, Comeaux said. They may be able to change the minds of people waiting in line.

“There’s no way that we really believe we can change what Milo thinks, nor do we believe we can change what his core followers believe,” Comeaux said. “The remaining people are more classically conservative or generally curious. If they’re confronted with a counter-narrative and a large, united community that demonstrates opposition to this hateful message, they will think twice (about becoming followers).”

Garrett Suzelis, a Boulder resident, agreed that protesters will need to have a thick skin if they plan to take on Yiannopoulos and his team. He predicted that opponents will end up on YouTube as part of a compilation of “social justice warrior fails.”

Suzelis said he plans to stay home Wednesday evening.

“My biggest point is that he’s got free speech on his side,” Suzelis said. “What’s the best course of action? To have a protest to bring more attention to it, or to have the entire community absolutely turn their backs and ghost this guy? You can’t shut him up.”

‘Stand up against it’

CU Chancellor Phil DiStefano also believes that Yiannopoulos — and the student groups that invited him — have free speech on their side. In a December message to the campus, DiStefano wrote that it’s his duty to uphold the university’s “dedication to free expression of viewpoints on campus.”

When students came back from winter break this week, he shared another message that drew on the beliefs of Martin Luther King Jr.

“When communities and individuals are subjected to hateful rhetoric designed to further marginalize, he implored us to stand up against it,” DiStefano wrote. “He implored us not to ignore it.”

He invited CU students and employees to attend the BuffsUnited event to “denounce tactics of personal denigration” and “racist and misogynist comments.”

“Such tactics and comments are not only personally reprehensible, but also contrary to the university’s values of civil, respectful discussion of difference and difficult topics,” he wrote. “They do not represent us. You do.”

Sarah Kuta: 303-473-1106, kutas@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/sarahkuta