Towson's White Student Union Calls for Racial Separateness at CPAC

Members of the White Student Union, a group that formed at Towson University, caused a stir Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference during a panel on how conservatives can defend themselves against liberals calling them racist.

Scott Terry, a member of the group, suggested during the event called "Trump the Race Card: Are You Sick and Tired of Being Called a Racist and You Know You're Not One?" that the GOP would do better as "Booker T. Washington Republicans"—"united like the hand, but separate like the fingers," according to The Atlantic Wire.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Matt Heimbach, the White Student Union's founder, said that about 30 members of the group attended the panel.

K.C. Smith and KCarl Smith, two brothers from Birmingham who are black, led the panel and began with a conversation on how the Republican Party can reach out to blacks, women and Latinos, according to The Atlantic Wire.

Think Progress caught some of the exchange on video.

Heimbach was previously president of Towson University's Youth for Western Civilization, which incited controversy after members reportedly scrawled "white pride" in chalk at campus locations in early 2012. The group eventually disbanded, but later that year Heimbach began recruiting for the White Student Union.

In September 2012, he disputed that there were racist motivations behind either groups, but said, similar to the school's Black Student Union, the White Student Union would advocate for "white interests."

He claimed Towson University has issues with racism against whites. But the university declined to officially recognize the group, in part, because the group was unable to find a faculty member willing to serve as an advisor.

"The very fact that people think it's racist shows that there is anti-white sentiment out there," Heimbach said of forming a White Student Union.