Conservative Club Leaders at Arizona State University Under Fire for Racist, Anti-Gay Remarks in Leaked Messages

Leaders of a conservative club at Arizona State University made racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic remarks in leaked messages obtained by the Phoenix New Times. The founder of College Republicans United, an offshoot of the university’s College Republicans, reportedly called African-American rapper Childish Gambino “degenerate monkey filth” while speaking to a former member of CRU who leaked the materials to the newspaper. The founder, senior Richard Thomas, also reportedly advocated for a “eugenics policy” after posting a YouTube video of a girl with Rett syndrome in a Facebook Messenger group chat, and wrote that he did not “believe homosexuality or this level of degeneracy is biological” but it was “a choice.” In addition, anti-Semitic memes and references were used throughout the communications provided to the newspaper. Thomas and former CRU member Cody Friedland were also pictured posing with gallons of milk and tiki torches. Tiki torches were used during the white-nationalist Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, and milk has reportedly become a “white supremacist symbol” based on the false notion that caucasians can digest dairy better than other races.

In a statement, CRU said it should not be judged by “private conversations” that were leaked by “former members who had the ill intentions of using blackmail.” “It’s a shame that we have so-called fellow ‘Republicans’ who are stooping so low to use leftist rags to attack other Republicans, when the same could be done on their own words just as easily,” the statement read.