How the Artist Formerly Known as Kanye West Inspired More Campus Antisemitism
Two men hung a black banner from a table they’d set up last month in the heart of the University of Florida’s Gainesville campus that read, “#YeIsRight Change My Mind.” Video cameras live-streamed the event. The men were unaffiliated with the university and didn’t warn the administration that they’d be there.
Dalton Clodfelter, a 22-year-old right-wing provocateur and livestreamer, and his co-host, Tyler Russell, claimed that their speech is “love speech,” and they pray that Jews convert to Christianity while repeating antisemitic conspiracy theories, including that Jews control the media and other industries.
They then posted videos of their encounters with college students on Twitter. One shows a young woman near tears as she says her grandfather was a Holocaust survivor — the two men often espouses Holocaust denial or minimization. One of them openly laughs in her face, a screenshot that turned into a short-lived meme.
In a self-described “college campus invasion” tour, Clodfelter and Russell had visited campuses all over the state — Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, Florida State University, University of Central Florida.
“I told a Jew girl that I love her ... I pray for their conversions. We have to pray for their conversions,” Clodfelter said, putting his hands together in a prayer sign, on a live stream in January after visiting a campus. He said that Jews and some other students weren’t interested in talking with him about the Holocaust or “Jewish power.”
“That’s how Jews act, that’s how Jews operate,” Clodfelter said when describing how he believed media outlets had misquoted or misattributed his statements on campus and his subsequent threats to sue them.
Celebrities like Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, have become a new avenue for the far right to promote mainstream antisemitism. The white supremacist Nick Fuentes and his Gen-Z followers, called “groypers,” continue to use Ye as a starting point to gain more adherents on college campuses. The Anti-Defamation League has found at least 30 incidents of antisemitism since October 2022 linked to Ye, many of them taking place on college campuses.
Last week, Clodfelter announced that he had lost the funding for his tour and would have to postpone it. Initially, he had wanted to expand it nationwide. Russell said that they want to try to revive the tour in the fall. The Chronicle tried to contact Clodfelter via social media but did not receive a comment in time for publication.
While it is unclear how connected some individual groypers are to a larger movement, experts say people like Clodfelter are capitalizing on growing antisemitism on campuses and in society at large.
Antisemitism is rising across the country. According to the ADL, 2021 was the worst year on record for documented reports of harassment, vandalism, and violence directed against Jews in the United States. A 2022 ADL survey of more than 40,000 people found that 20 percent of Americans believed at least six or more anti-Jewish tropes, the highest level measured in decades, and 85 percent of Americans believed at least one trope, compared with 61 percent in 2019.
“For years, white nationalists have targeted campuses to spread their ideology and try to influence people and find recruits,” said Ben Lorber, a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates who tracks antisemitism on campuses and in white-nationalist movements. “They view young college students as impressionable. And they also know that campuses are where a lot of the future political or cultural leaders of the country are.”
According to Jonah Zinn, the rabbi and executive director of the University of Florida’s Hillel chapter, while administrators can’t and shouldn’t limit speech on campus, they have a responsibility to respond and support the campus Jewish community — but that response can be fraught with free-speech concerns too.
While Clodfelter and Russell’s table was on campus, set across from where the university’s Hillel was tabling, the university’s chief diversity officer stood by, Zinn said, offering support and reassuring students.
“The antidote to hate speech is to use speech to affirm who we really are. We’re a caring community that believes everyone belongs,” Zinn said.
The Chomp Hate social-media campaign was created in response to a projected sign at a Florida-Georgia football game last October that said “Kanye is right about the Jews!!!” Just before Clodfelter visited campus in February, antisemitic chalkings, some of which said “Ye is Right,” were found on the sidewalks. A few weeks later, Nicole D. Evangelista, a graduate student at the University of Florida, reported antisemitic symbols etched into the concrete walls of a campus parking structure.
In a tweet, she wrote, “While I did report this, we need structural changes (beyond a video of people doing the gator chomp) to address ongoing antisemitism on campus & our community.”
Similar chalkings, graffiti, fliers, and more have appeared on several different campuses, some of them following in the wake of Clodfelter’s road trip.
“Part of what we are trying to do is make sure that students know that the values of these antisemitic outsiders are not the values of our campus community,” Zinn said. “Everyone should feel comfortable being the fullest version of themselves, including Jewish students. And the Jewish community certainly stands united in wanting to support other students and making sure they feel a sense of belonging.”
