Richard Spencer, the face of the alt-right movement and vocal white-supremacist, has now been asked to no longer speak at Ohio State University, Michigan State and Penn State. This comes after the riots at the University of Florida this past weekend, which resulted in three Spencer supporters being charged with attempted murder. Spencer’s supporters are now suing the three universities in hopes of allowing him to “speak safely.”    

Spencer led the marches in Charlottesville, Virginia back in August, and much like former Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos, his presence has incited riots at universities like Auburn University in Alabama.

In light of what happened this past weekend, the three universities said not allowing Spencer to speak is a matter of safety for its students. This may be bad news for Spencer, with three major universities denying “lectures” from him. Spencer may have a tougher time spreading his message.

For those who aren’t sure of what Spencer is saying at these lectures that he gives to young impressionable students, much of it involves racism, anti-Semitism and misogamist hate speech. Spencer has called for “peaceful ethnic cleansing,” stating that the white-race is the only race that should be in the “homeland.”

The reason that Spencer needs to speak at colleges like these is because he can still convince naïve college students into believing his white nationalistic ideas. But if universities begin to follow in this trend, this would be a huge loss to the alt-right movement.

Bloomberg reported last year that Donald Trump received 48 percent of the white vote in the 18-to-29 age group. Much of this could be attributed to the speeches given by Yiannopoulos and Spencer who both supported Trump during 2016. Spencer is famously known for giving a speech where he saluted the crowd similarly to how a Nazi soldier would during World War II, then shouting “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory.”

This type of speech is part of the problem that America faces today. Yes, allowing free speech is important on college campuses, but at what point does society begin to learn from its mistakes? Spencer isn’t challenging any archaic ideas or raising an interesting argument, he is spreading the same exact ideas and language that Adolf Hitler did during the rise of Nazi Germany, this time just wrapped in a different package.

Why would we, as a country, want students to have these ideas essentially being sold to them. Universities say by allowing people like Spencer to speak is that his ideas are ok. No, that is meant for speakers who have an argument like “I disagree with a certain stance on healthcare,” not for someone to say “white people are better because they are a superior race.”

What does it say to students of color, different sexual orientation or religion? “We respect you but we’re going to let this person who hates you come and tell you why you shouldn’t be here.” The idea of letting outside speakers come to campuses is to bring a different idea to students, so maybe in a time where political tension is high on campuses students can have empathy for both sides of the spectrum. That doesn’t mean allowing someone to make a call to action against people of different ethnicities.

Spencer’s supporters and backers are arguing that not allowing him to speak is unconstitutional. This past April, Spencer won a law suit against Auburn University where a federal judge ruled in favor in allowing Spencer to speak.

But that ruling may be different now having seen what happened at Florida. A gun shot was fired at a crowd of peaceful protesters, the suspects were also shouting “Hail Hitler!” These actions correlate with so many other protests, such as Charlottesville, which injured 19 and left one dead. The alt-right movement does incite violence, and allowing Richard Spencer on college campuses is dangerous to both the fabric of our society and the physical well-being of students.