Fox News targeted NYU students

So we fought back

The first time Jesse Watters really riled up the press this year was with his disgustingly racist segment released on October 3rd. Although Watters received massive backlash from the Asian American community and its allies, Watters still wouldn’t stop with his tomfoolery.

On October 24th, NYU was unfortunate enough to be chosen as the new stomping ground for this.

Watters wandered Washington Square Park, and its surrounding areas, around 8am to find NYU students to quiz on the 2016 elections. The video was put together to feature mainly NYU students who aren’t as aware of the current political atmosphere as others.

Students would be quizzed on topics such as the Vice President candidates and the election date. The video was put together to have movie segments after answers to either make fun of students for being unaware of the answer, or to make fun of them even when they were aware.

After the segment aired, Bill O’Reilly asked Watters if he was surprised when students would know answers. He stated he was surprised that even 3 out of the 12 students interviewed knew the answers to the questions.

Why would it be surprising if students would know answers? We attend one of the top schools in the country – and the world. Many of us work hard to keep a hold on the education we have now. NYU is also one of the most politically active schools out there so how the hell do we not know about the elections?

Who knows if Watters actually interviewed only 12 students. Who knows if Watters merely wanted to erase the opinions of the politically engaged majority of NYU by not featuring as many of them. And because NYU is predominately liberal, Watters added on to bipartisan conflict by making it appear as if its liberal students don’t actually know anything about politics. Finally Watters aimed to embody the millennial stereotype of lazy, not politically engaged college students on television.

But millennials are actually one of the most politically active generations and one of the most hardest working generations. UCLA conducted a survey of college freshmen in 2015 that showed millennials are more politically engaged than before. A survey from Manpower group showed that millennials work harder if not just as hard as other groups. It surveyed 19,000 millennials in 25 different countries,  and confirmed that millennials aren’t enjoying the 40 hour work weeks that some other generations did. If anything we work harder longer hours. So why are we the butt of jokes? Why are we the butt of jokes when the baby boomers screwed us all over with Reagan-ism and more?

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