This Thursday, a white supremacist by the name of Richard Spencer rented out the Phillips Center in Gainesville, Florida, for the chance to spread hateful rhetoric and amass a horde of supporters.

What Spencer found instead was a crowd of protesters who drowned out his extremist defense of “peaceful ethnic cleansing” and other oxymoronic statements with University of Florida game day chants, defiant standing, and the traditional (but always effective) booing of discontent.

Watching the Facebook live stream coverage from the relative safety of my on-campus apartment in Gainesville, I felt a rush of pride for my fellow Gators partaking in the countermovement. 

Whether they risked their personal well-being in a state of emergency by waving signs downtown or by sharing messages of hope for a nonexclusive, peaceful world in social media statuses, these men and women stood up for the good of all, doing so in a way that exercised their constitutional rights without resorting to base violence.

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“What does this mean for me?”

Now, I’m not going to go into too much detail about what Spencer’s alt-right views are and why they’re 50 shades of messed up; there’s enough coverage on that from more knowledgeable sources than I. (And, frankly, if the label “white supremacist” don’t scare you, I don’t know what can.)

(If you’re interested in learning more, check out these articles from NPR, The Washington Post, Business Insider, and International Business Times.)

Nor will I defend my right to discuss relevant political issues in an online fashion and beauty magazine aimed at 20-something college girls — mainly because I, along with Lauren Duca and Hadley Freeman and Chava Gourarie and countless others, believe that an interest in fashion and socio-political issues are NOT mutually exclusive.