If Emory values diversity, shouldn’t that include the views of Trump chalkers?

Before you can have me face judgments, I just want to start off by saying that I dislike Trump with all my heart, and have no respect for him or for his ideas.

But at the same time, what I do have respect for is the political views of all the people who support him. These Trump supporters or “trumpites” (as labelled by protesters) aren’t necessarily racist; they don’t necessarily want all refugees to leave the country; they probably just support Trump for the sake of having an honest leader.

And in spite of being a racist, sexist, and hateful presidential candidate, Trump, at times is very genuine about his views. You can’t hate on someone who supports him for the truth. I bet even someone like Gandhi, who was an advocate of truth, would agree to this.

After reading some of the articles about the Trump chalkings, I feel that we’ve clearly had some very biased views till now. When we’re talking about diversity at Emory, I feel that diversity includes Trump supporters as well.

I would definitely say it was a cowardly move since it was done anonymously, but perhaps the only reason why the chalkers were anonymous is because at Emory, people are becoming afraid to speak out their true political views. I believe that this is causing a vast gap between what people actually feel and what they want other people to think they feel.

Some of my own friends who supported my position with this article did not want me to mention their names because they don’t want to “deal with all the protesters”.

Had someone supported Bernie Sanders or Clinton through chalk writings, they wouldn’t have had to face such consequences and it wouldn’t be such a big deal. But since it’s Trump and Trump is taboo at Emory, people here don’t want to openly express their opinions. What makes us a liberal and progressive school if we can’t let people communicate their views?

A number of journalists, including Clay Travis for Fox Sports, spoke in concern against the narrow-minded approach of the protesters.

He said: “Would these students have felt the same way if “Feel the Bern” had been written in chalk all over campus instead? Probably not.

“So what these students are upset by isn’t political speech, it’s political speech they disagree with. Which, you know, is the entire purpose of the first amendment, to protect unpopular opinion”.

In his 42-minute podcast, Travis goes on about how these protesters are taking on the wrong approach in their reaction to a simple expression of political views. There was no direct racism in the chalk writings, and yes I agree that indirect racism is probably worse, but let’s have an open mind to this for a second: indirect racism only exists if you interpret it to exist.

It is apparent at this stage that Trump is actually beating the polls, and a lot of people are afraid that he’s actually going to win. Yeah, I’ll agree with you when you say that he’s not the right candidate for this. But here’s what: seeking sympathy  on social media is as cowardly as anonymously chalking down opinions in public.

If you’re anti-Trump, you know he’s leading the polls and you see political messages in his support, you don’t have to take it personally. People don’t support Trump because they want you to leave the country.

We’re fighting the wrong enemy. Not trying to sound overly philosophical, but the real enemies aren’t Trump supporters or even Trump himself. The real enemies are hatred, anger, racism, and destruction.

We don’t have to fight each other’s opinions. We have to face the truth; if Trump is winning the elections then we should really take our heads out of social media for once, and face the fucking reality.

Emory supports diversity and so do I.

This is coming from a brown student who doesn’t support Trump, but is not “violated”, “offended”, “attacked” or “triggered” by chalk writings that say “Trump 2016”.