In February, Auburn University became the center of national controversy after a long list of racial slurs for white people drafted by the Auburn Black Student Union was leaked by student Jaden Heard to Turning Point USA (TPUSA).
Heard is now the president of the TPUSA chapter at Auburn where he promotes conservative values and tries to change the minds of young left-leaning students like those who created that list.
“There’s really no excuse for the university not to hold these people accountable,” Heard said last week on an episode of “Alabama Unfiltered.” “Yet, if it was reversed and we had a white student union making black racial slurs, we all know what would happen then.”
Heard said Democrats and the black community have been told conservatives are racist and against their success for so long that it’s hard to “break down their walls” to convince them otherwise.
As a black person raised Democrat, he said felt “betrayed” by this narrative once he became a conservative in 2020 and a Christian in 2021.
“You’re told, when you’re raised black, you got to think a certain way, so I really felt kind of betrayed or lied to my whole life when I came to the truth,” he said.
The relevant portion begins around the 12:05 mark.
Heard said he started watching conservative content online during the COVID lockdowns and things he saw happening in government and society started to make sense. It wasn’t long before his whole life was changed.
“When I became saved, I really became passionate about social issues,” he said. “…Things started happening around our country, like just the degeneracy and people who are just looking for hope and they’re not finding it. So that got me involved with the movement, and, really, that’s my foundation — my faith in Jesus.”
Heard is also a spokesman for the anti-abortion group Students for Life National and hosts his own show on Christian issues, “Let It Be Heard.” He said among the top issues concerning college students today are student loan debt, abortion rights and gender issues.
“It’s not getting any better. It’s getting more divisive,” he said. “I think a lot of young people are looking for hope. They’re looking for identity, and they’re putting their identity in things that are not Christ. You’re seeing where that’s leading now.”
Heard said one of the ways he bridges the gap between those he disagrees with is to first find some common ground on an issue to open the door for further conversation.
“Finding common ground is not compromising; it’s just simply acknowledging what you agree on,” he said. “...I’ve lost a lot of friends, and I’ve gotten some backlash from family as well. Really, the only way I see this changing is really just either the gospel — obviously a great way — or two, really just normalizing conservative black Americans. Black Americans who are conservative have to speak out.”
He said that even though he was raised Democrat, many of the values he was taught lined up with conservatism.
“You would think that conservatism would be attractive. Actually, I know what it is. It’s the media. It’s how they painted conservatism,” he said. “They painted it as white supremacy, and again when you appeal to emotions to people who feel like they’ve been going through something forever you just beat that into them, they become a slave mentally, which is worse than becoming a slave physically because a slave mentally, you don’t even understand that you’re a slave… Until the black community understands that, I don’t think we’re really going to see a really big change as far as demographics in voting.”
However, he said there is hope as more and more college students are “waking up” to conservative ideas.
“Even here at Auburn, people I grew up with, they’re waking up, and it’s not just because they’re running into videos; they’re watching my stuff,” he said. “They’re watching social media or other black creators are coming out in public like rappers are saying ‘Oh, Trump is actually not that bad.’ That affects the culture.”
He added, “People are also noticing how the Democrat party is just getting worse and worse and worse. They getting more openly racist with this Affirmative Action saying that ‘blacks can’t make it unless we give you money.’ It’s just ridiculously funny how ironic it is, what they say.”
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email daniel.taylor@1819news.com.
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