Here's a bit of good news that should interest YWC readers: Young Americans (18 to 29 year olds) are souring on Barack Obama.

Progressives have long smugly believed the transformation of America is inevitable. Sure, the Greatest Generation and Baby Boomers are joining the Tea Party, but Generation X and Generation Y will pull through for us in the long term. Obama won the youth vote 66 percent to 32 percent over McCain.

How often have you heard that argument?

The 2008 presidential election was widely interpreted as a sign that Democrats had a lock on the youth vote. In hindsight, it looks more like a sign of the Bush fatigue and dissatisfaction with a weak Republican candidate that swept the wider electorate.

Since Obama has taken office, his promises of "hope" and "change" have materialized into little more than snake oil, and a terrible job market has dampened identification among the young with the Democratic Party. This has worked to the advantage of the GOP.

Youth for Western Civilization is focused on rolling back the progressive agenda (amnesty for illegal aliens, multiculturalism, political correctness, affirmative action, leftwing indoctrination) in America's universities. Two years after Barack Obama's election, the campus environment is slightly more favorable for conservatives.

Let's hope the political wind continues to blow in our direction. In order for that to happen, the next Congress must seize this historic opportunity. Restoring America is a long term project that will require the hard work of several generations.

Whether this task succeeds or fails will rest on the political convictions of Americans who are now in their twenties and thirties. The lesson for Republicans is not to raise expectations only to fail to deliver.

Nothing fails like being made to feel like a sucker.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) recently released a list of six schools that most blatantly violated student’s rights. Five of the six schools (83%) made the list for incidents involving race or gender as the impetus for disciplinary action against students, or in one case, a professor.

One of the particularly striking cases occurred at Bucknell University, where the members of the Bucknell University Conservatives Club (BUCC) had a demonstration against Obama’s stimulus and affirmative action which was shut down by administrators. While the average Tea Party member or mainstream libertarian would have caved and recruited some minority speaker to their next rally, the BUCC refused to back down and filed suit with the aid of The FIRE.

Unfortunately the students at Boston’s Tufts University failed to realize the lesson that apologizing to the Left will win you zero sympathy. After students published a satirical article entitled "Come All Ye Black Folk" in the conservative student newspaper, The Primary Source, lampooning their institution's race-based admissions process, minority students filed harassment charges against the paper, even though the conservatives ran a full-page advertisement apologizing for the article.

Boston was the scene of yet another controversy, where Professor Donald Hindley, a fifty year veteran at Brandeis, made the mistake of explaining in his Latin American Politics class that some in the United States of America pejoratively refer to Mexicans as “wetbacks." Regardless of its context or a sneaking suspicion I have that Donald Hindley is probably as much of an immigration restrictionist as John McCain, he still was ruthlessly persecuted by the politically correct regime that runs his institution.

These are just a few of the more arcane cases that seem to happen daily on university campuses across the country.  Youth for Western Civilization has experienced its own travails, with events canceled without reason and even entire chapters blacklisted by administrators at Providence College and Liberty University. 

Although biased professors constitute a dangerous threat in the classroom through the dissemination of propaganda, the administrators are often career Leftists that act as the Stasi of the diversity-obsessed status quo. These useful idiots ride the gravy train of a personal connection to maneuver themselves into positions where they can impose their Leftist worldview, taking comfy, yet influential positions such as event coordinators or judicial officers.

Obviously the modern university is draconian when it comes to acculturating their pupils into the current left-wing social apparatus, and is willing to go some extreme lengths to ensure this unnatural state of affairs is preserved. In this warped age, we are lucky to have organizations like The FIRE that take a classical approach to free speech on campus and are willing to actively litigate and bring to light those that breach our basic rights in the name of the diversity crusade.

Here is the detailed list recently released by The FIRE.

When we made our new website, we lost some of the stuff on the old Western Youth website.  I found this in the archives.  This is from April 2009, in the aftermath of the first Tom Tancredo event at the University of North Carolina.  This is me on the Mark and Jim show in Los Angeles. 

Obviously, we are in a much different place now than where we were then.  However, as the Tea Party movement and the Arizona controversy has grown since then, I think my point is even more relevant.  Has any conservative group, ever, even in the midst of the supposedly terrifying rise of right wing populism, ever shouted down a liberal speaker?  (Ok, besides Congressman Joe "You Lie" Wilson.)  Any conservatives throwing bricks through windows while leftists try to talk?

Here's a tip for every conservative -- no matter what you do, you are the bad guy.  Leftists can protest, use extreme rhetoric, flaunt radical connections, and even use violence.  No one will care.  The double standard is there because leftists are the establishment.  The establishment actively favors what is happening to this nation.  They are in power -- we are occupied.  Recognize that, and you'll be ready to start mobilizing for real change in this country.

Allen Zaruba, a local artist and Towson professor, was recently fired for using an insensitive racial slur in his classroom. He used the term in the context of a discussion of provocative works about the human body. Zaruba (a teacher for over twelve years) humbly begged for forgiveness from school administrators, but it wasn't enough to save his job.

By all accounts, Allen Zaruba is a good teacher with a passionate devotion to his craft. The man has a black stepfather. It is doubtful Zaruba uttered the dreaded n-word with any racist intent. His reference to a "corporate plantation" indicates that he even has strong liberal political views. Unfortunately, this one slip of the tongue will most likely prove sufficient to ruin Zaruba's career as a teacher. He worries the incident will cause him to be blacklisted by other schools.

If Allen Zaruba had cheated on his wife, abandoned his children, or even killed someone while drunk driving, he probably wouldn't be facing social and professional ostracism. What does this say about the state of American society?

Mayor Lou Barletta, the rare elected official who actually seems to care about his constituents and his country, is speaking out about a class called “War in Hazleton” at Temple University.  Professor Lori Zott has formed a multi-disciplinary class which looks at the immigration battle in Hazleton, Pennsylvania -- from a multicultural perspective of course.  Judging from the syllabus, the class hammers away with the usual brain dead narratives – but includes some heretical ideas at the end, for those who want to hear it. 

The class syllabus begins with the inevitable poem from Emma Lazarus, which unfortunately for America, was attached to the Statue of Liberty.  As with just about every issue in American "higher" education, this is a sign that "huddled clichés" are about to substitute for serious thinking about a policy problem.  Week One, for example, tells us that America is a nation of immigrants.  It states, "Although every resident of the United States is either an immigrant or the descendent of an immigrant (except the indigenous people) this country has a long history of "nativist movements" in which one group of immigrants brands another as 'alien.'"

Already, the class is in liberal fantasy land.  Of course, America is not a nation of immigrants, it is a nation of pioneers and settlers, characterized by an identifiable core culture of British settlement.  The indigenous people are not the "First Americans," they were not considered Americans at all for many years (see our Declaration of Independence and its description of the “merciless Indian savages” for more on this view).  This is also why we consider the American polity to have truly begun with the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth and the settlement of Jamestown.  

What “nation of immigrants” really means is that America has no identity and belongs to no one, or, it belongs to everyone except actual Americans.  It reduces the country to a geographic expression, which of course, is the point.  "A nation of immigrants" can also be said about any nation, as no group of people simply sprung out of the ground and lived exactly in the same place since the dawn of man.  It is inherently a cliché used as a weapon in bad faith, designed explicitly to deconstruct the identity of any national identity.  Sure enough, England, France, and even Germany are now defined as "nations of immigrants" by apologists of national suicide. 

Let's move on.  Week two begins with chronicles of "nativist violence" that characterizes much of American history, as well as the inevitable contention that arguments for restricting immigration were solely a product of racist ideology.  This implicates much of the American labor movement of the time, because a tight labor market is an obvious precondition to any serious effort to improve working conditions, wages, and labor saving technology.  For this reason, leaders such as Samuel Gompers were leaders in patriotic immigration reform. 

Weeks Four and Five helpfully inform us that  "the United States has interfered in Latin American politics in ways that perpetuate oppression and encourage violence."  You’ve got the reconquista coming, gringo. 

The class does move onto interesting territory as it goes on, however.  It talks about how globalization has de-industrialized the United States and is driving mass immigration from developing countries.  It points to the Wall Street Journal’s attitude that “labor is a commodity” as a key factor in the “no borders” ideology that is taking shape among corporate elites.  Dick Armey, somewhere, is nodding in approval.  The class concludes that globalization ultimately is a system that rewards developed countries at the expense of developing countries and that reforms are necessary to redress this imbalance. 

Here is where contemporary leftism implodes in upon itself.  Leftists define their heroic self image by a militant resistance to privilege and elitism.  However, it is precisely what Mark Krikorian calls “post-American” elites are the real motivation behind mass immigration.  They are the ones who benefit from the deconstruction of the American nation.  Latin American elites benefit in the same manner, transferring the politically troublesome unskilled working class into the United States and creating a safety valve to prevent any social reforms that could potentially jeopardize their own power.  All the radical leftists campaigning for amnesty, from Students for a Democratic Society to MEChA, might as well serve as lobbyists for the Fortune 500.  This is perhaps one reason why companies like Coca-Cola and WalMart will donate to the National Council of La Raza, but won’t be donating to Youth for Western Civilization anytime soon.

It is the American middle and working classes that are being threatened with dispossession and cultural destruction by the economic elite of this country and the world.  If the victims were Peruvian peasants, or Congolese farmers, the campus left would be occupying buildings, but because the American people are the ones being attacked, the campus left shows their real motivations and joins society’s powerful in the attack.  The campus left is a paper tiger.  They are but the militant wing of the system, and their antics are tolerated because the privileged members of our society favor their agenda.  Their self righteousness is matched only by their corruption.

What Temple University students should learn is that the only people who are truly standing up against privilege are men like Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, who has received overwhelming public support because he put his community first.  Mayor Barletta is the real voice of the oppressed, standing with the working men and women of America.  Hopefully, these students will get to hear his perspective soon.  It’s a voice of common sense and patriotism that has been all but abolished from American higher education.

An editorial in the student newspaper of Tufts University is glowing with praise of diversity. We are told Tufts "prides itself on its acceptance and encouragement of diversity" and that "nearly a quarter of the class of 2013" identify as "students of color." Tufts has an "Office of Institutional Diversity" and recently hosted a symposium over the weekend that "afforded further opportunity for Tufts to highlight and promote dialogue around racial and ethnic diversity."

The Civil Rights Movement has come full circle. In the 1960s, progressive liberals argued that Americans should embrace the ideal of colorblindness and equal opportunity for all races. In his 2008 election campaign, Barack Obama ran on his dream of a "post-racial" America where skin color would gradually become irrelevant. Meanwhile, the bean counters on America's college campuses have never been more obsessed with race. Racial considerations seem to play an important role in almost everything they do.

No one has ever adequately explained why "racial diversity" is such an important goal. The argument rests on the racist premise that individuals are representatives of distinct races with definable characteristics. A white female cannot bring a certain perspective to a university because of her genetic makeup. Therefore, the Office of Admissions must recruit Hispanic females and a diverse faculty and student body to ensure that certain ideas are represented on campus.

"Diversity" runs against the idea that we should judge others as individuals on the basis on merit. A colorblind society cannot be realized when university administrators are constantly discriminating on the basis of race.

Last month, the Zeta Tau Alpha chapter of the University of Arkansas won a national dance competition in Atlanta - the "Sprite Step Off" - and all hell broke loose. "Step dancing," you see, is a traditional black art form and the Zetas from Arkansas were the only white contestants. The Arkansas sorority has been "stepping" for 16 years now. They were introduced to the tradition in a multiracial "Unity Night" in which black and white sororities swap traditions.

In Barack Obama's postracial America, where racism is said to be a relic of the past, you would think the Zeta's victory would have been celebrated as the quintessential example of "celebrating diversity," "interracial harmony," and "encouraging mutual respect." Obviously, the Zetas must think highly of African-American culture to find it worthy of emulation. Music and dance have traditionally played an important role in breaking down racial barriers.

Not this time. In the aftermath of the Zeta's victory, hundreds of furious African Americans took to YouTube, blogs, and internet messageboards to post thousands of hateful, racist comments about the Zetas. How dare a bunch of white girls from Arkansas waltz into the "Sprite Step Off" and beat black sororities at their own game! The videos of the competition on YouTube generated so much racist, anti-white vitriol from African Americans that the comment section had to be shut down.

Angry black callers seething with hate flooded talk radio call-in shows with hostile comments. Rozonda Thomas of TLC, a judge at the competition, took such a beating on one black radio show in Atlanta that she called in to defend herself. In an act of racial solidarity, Thomas told her listeners that "the AKAs from Indiana, hands-down in my opinion, should have won." Apparently, the old idea that we should judge others based on the color of their skin, not the content of their character, still resonates with many in the African American community.

Initially, the Zetas performance in Atlanta was met with wild applause by the largely African American audience in attendance. However, when it became clear that the Zetas had actually won the competition, large sections of the audience booed them off the stage. Later, the Coca Cola company retroactively awarded a second first place prize of $100,000 to the runner up black sorority. The message sent was clear: even if they lose, the first place prize will always be awarded to a black sorority.

Race is more important than merit. That's what the multiculturalists would have us believe. They talk endlessly about "diversity" and "inclusion," but it quickly becomes clear that one race in particular doesn't match their profile. Telllingly, the professional anti-hate community hasn't had much to say about this sordid episode in American race relations.

Al Sharpton hasn't marched. Jesse Jackson hasn't held a candlelight protest. The NAACP isn't launching a boycott. President Barack Obama hasn't called this a "teachable moment." Is anyone surprised?

At Ole Miss, a campaign is underway to select "Admiral Ackbar," a space alien from Star Wars, as the new school mascot. There are several Facebook groups promoting this absurd idea: "Ackbar Olemiss" has 2,416 fans, "Ole Miss Rebel Alliance" has 3,602 fans, "Admiral Ackbar for Ole Miss Mascot" has 5,678 fans. These are the largest groups I have found. A couple of smaller groups with a few hundred members exist.

Ackbar seems to have a lot of out-of-state fans. The "Rebel Alliance" campaign has tapped into a huge well of support in the American sci-fi community. Northern liberals who write for major newspapers love the idea of Ole Miss shedding its "racist" heritage. These are generally not the people who religiously follow SEC football. I never knew anyone at the University of Alabama who was offended by Colonel Reb when the Rebels came to Tuscaloosa. Everyone I have spoken to back home hates this sort of political correctness.

TMZ is reporting that a backlash has erupted on campus. Disgruntled Ole Miss students are threatening to transfer if Ackbar becomes the new mascot. The groups pushing Ackbar have received a number of angry calls and emails. The parents of current and prospective students are threatening to send their kids to other colleges. This writer has been contacted by angry Ole Miss students and encouraged to press the issue.

I can't imagine Ole Miss alumni are pleased with this idea. What does "Admiral Ackbar," a fictional alien from Star Wars, have to do with Mississippi or Ole Miss tradition? The best part of being an alumni is carrying on the tradition of a storied institution. It means continuity with previous and future generations. That is exactly what Ackbar supporters are proposing to jettison here.

Who wants Admiral Crawdad when you can have The Colonel?

Zennie Abraham of the San Francisco Chronicle is denying the existence of a backlash. Apparently, Mr. Abraham (a Star Trek fanatic) hasn't been following the opposition groups on Facebook. "Colonel Reb" has 4,514 fans. The Colonel Reb Foundation, SaveOleMiss.com, has 9,825 fans. In 2003, 94% of Ole Miss students voted to keep Colonel Reb on the field, but that option wasn't on the recent ballot. Colonel Reb has far more supporters than "Admiral Ackbar" ... and most of them are actually from Mississippi!

History has shown that appeasement doesn't work. Leftists went after the Confederate flag at Ole Miss football games. Then Colonel Reb was forced into retirement. But that wasn't good enough. So Dixie and "The South will rise again" had to be banned at football games. Now "Admiral Ackbar" is being pushed as the new mascot. A few years from now, the same agitators (although they deny this) will be demanding that Ole Miss rename the football team, as the term "Rebels" can be construed as another politically incorrect reminder of the Confederacy.

Should Jackson, MS be renamed as well? President Andrew Jackson was a slaveowner who ethnically cleansed the Choctaw Indians from Mississippi. How many cities and counties in Mississippi are named after white racists? How many of those towns are graced by Confederate monuments in town squares? The list goes on and on. A dangerous precedent has been set here. It could one day lead to a Soviet Union style cleansing of Mississippi place names and historic markers.

We are already sliding down that slippery slope. If we don't start fighting back, the Iron Curtain of political correctness will continue to smother our Southern heritage.

A minority student at UC San Diego recently admitted to hanging a noose in the school library. The student involved has apologized and called the incident a "harmless prank" and a "mindless act and a stupid mistake." She has denied harboring any racial animosity toward blacks. This hasn't stopped a firestorm of controversy from erupting on campus.

A wave of angry demonstrations have since been held. On Monday, 200 black students wearing black bandanas held a silent protest at the Sather Gate on campus. UC San Diego students wearing red handkerchiefs over the faces took over the chancellor's office for several hours. On Wednesday, campus administrators held a "teach in" against intolerance. The school is also holding a campus-wide "Battle Hate" campaign.

The Black Student Union is exploiting the situation by demanding that UC San Diego capitulate to a list of 32 racial demands. This includes boosting the "African American curriculum and campus activities" and requiring students to take courses in "African-American, ethnic and gender studies." The university has denied having the authority to force students to take multicultural courses.

Yesterday, UC San Diego folded and raised the white flag of surrender:

The university announced a plan to address the growing racial tensions. It includes making greater efforts to recruit minority faculty, forming a commission to address the campus climate, ensuring ongoing funding for the chancellor's diversity office, creating an African American Resource Center and establishing quarterly meetings between the administration and members of the Black Student Union. Many of these recommendations are not new.

With all the uproar this fake hate crime has created, an outside observer might get the mistaken impression that something really awful had happened at UC San Diego, for example, a student had been brutally raped or murdered. The tragic reality of America's college campuses these days is that insensitive pranks which harm no one but violate the taboos of political correctness generate more outrage and garner more attention than some of the most horrific violent crimes.

After all of this hullabaloo about "racism," it is ironic to see race-based groups clumsily exploiting the situation with threatening demands for more phony PC courses and more money for political hacks.  It is impossible to take this farce seriously.  The only appropriate response a sane person can have is laughter.

On Tuesday, Ole Miss students voted to choose a new mascot to replace Colonel Reb. The student body was given a choice between picking a new mascot or Ole Miss continuing as the only SEC school without one. Although America takes pride in its commitment to democracy, keeping Colonel Reb was not on the ballot. The Colonel was forced into retirement in 2003.

The old Confederate soldier is the latest victim in a PC campaign to purge Ole Miss of its Southern heritage. A few years ago, Confederate flags were banned at Ole Miss football games. The school flag was changed. Last year the Ole Miss band stopped playing Dixie. Students are no longer allowed to chant "The South will rise again" at football games. Every concession to political correctness has led to further extreme demands and appeasement.

This is the ugly reality of multiculturalism for Southerners: it means celebrating the culture and heritage of every group in the world but our own. Under Cultural Marxism, we are not allowed a positive sense of identity. When we speak of our past, multiculturalism demands that we must always do so in cringing, obsequious, apologetic tones. The cant of "diversity," so ubiquitous on Southern college campuses these days, does not include the natives.

This has led to a situation where Chinese, Afghan, Hispanic, and Indonesian student groups are encouraged to organize on Southern campuses and wallow in their ethnic identity while every symbol of the Confederate past must be torn down and spat upon. Confederate monuments are defaced with racist graffiti. Schools named after Thomas Jefferson are renamed after icons of the multiculturalist pantheon. Songs are outlawed. Flags are lowered. States are boycotted and pressured to conform.

Where does this stop? When will Southerners, in particular our youth, stand up, hold their ground, and say enough is enough? YWC is organizing on America's college campuses. We are fighting back against multiculturalist hypocrisy and intolerance. We invite you to join us.

Note: YWC News is a native Southerner and a proud graduate of an SEC college.