John Rich, a country music singer, said he is ready to play at a wild party for members of a fraternity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“I contacted them and said, ‘Guys, I'm really proud of you. When you have that big party you're talking about on GoFundMe, I'd like to come and give you a free concert,’” Rich said said on NewsNation’s “On Balance” with host Leland Vittert Thursday. “And they responded, and I think we're going to try to make that happen.”
The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity members made sure an American flag didn’t touch the ground at a protest on campus on Tuesday.
The members were seen in several viral videos holding up the flag while activists threw things at them, leading to a GoFundMe for the fraternity brothers called “Pi Kappa Phi Men Defended Their Flag. Throw ‘em a Rager,” which has now raised raised over $500,000.
“When I saw the guys at UNC, holding that flag up, making sure it did not hit the ground, it told me a lot about them,” Rich remarked.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who has expressed his dislike for recent pro-Palestinian protests, donated $10,000 to the GoFundMe.
Lately, protests have erupted on college campuses nationwide focusing on Palestinian human rights and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.
The protests have also sparked faced accusations of antisemitism, which protesters have pushed back against.
“We are frustrated by media distractions focusing on inflammatory individuals who do not represent us,” Columbia protest leaders stated in a release last month. “Our members have been misidentified by a politically motivated mob.”
“We firmly reject any form of hate or bigotry and stand vigilant against non-students attempting to disrupt the solidarity being forged among students,” they added. “Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Black and pro-Palestinian classmates and colleagues who represent the full diversity of our country.”
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