A response to the pro-Trump chalk that covered our campus

It’s happening across the country

This past week, our campus of UCSB was plagued with chalk writing. While some of it was there to support a certain presidential candidate who has been extremely open with his discrimination against marginalized communities, other writings promoted something even more sinister. From racism to homophobia to misogyny, much of these writings were hateful, and violent to the communities of students and people they targeted.

It is essential to acknowledge that these attacks were pointed. From writing “go home,” “deport them all,” and “keep the tacos” outside the Chican@ Studies department to trivializing rape cases, the police brutality that Black people face, and HIV and promoting Islamophobia with “torture Muslims” outside of the resource centers for women, LGBTQ+ and racial diversity centers in the SRB. These writings were a blatant attack on various communities of students who pay to attend this university, and intended to threaten our communities and make us feel alienated from being an integral part of this campus.

These acts make us, as people who already face so much discrimination in our lives, feel not only unwelcome, but unsafe. It needs to be addressed that harassment through hate speech is violence. Just as people can be emotionally abused through relationships, or how children can suffer greatly from bullying, hate speech is a form violence.

Marginalized people who constantly suffer from the violence that is rooted in racism, ableism, sexism, classism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia understand how difficult it is to navigate through the way hate batters us, fuels our struggles with mental health, and shames us for even existing. As people who face so much hate, we must not only navigate through these challenges but learn to survive them.

Hate is violence in that it serves to dehumanize and abuse the people it is targeted at. It trivializes the issues that we, as marginalized people, face that are institutionalized within our country, and it is there to invalidate our existence and experiences. I ask that even if you do not feel personally affected by these writings, that we all stand in solidarity against this blatant act of hate against so many of the students and staff of our campus. Hate speech and violence have no place on a campus that is supposed to value and welcome mutual respect and tolerance for a diversity of views and people.

Two years ago, hate and violence united our campus in a powerful way. I had never felt safer being a part of this campus, despite the circumstances. It was because I felt that we had joined together to form a community that looked out for one another. It pains me to see how violence has now created a space that promotes an atmosphere that is completely opposite to the climate of solidarity, love, and respect that was present in the aftermath of the shooting.

We hold the power to address and resist the ways in which discrimination works to damage communities of people within our campus. I hope that this act will unify students to tackle the difficult issues of discrimination against our peers, to challenge injustices when they happen, and to recognize how powerful it can be to be united as a campus community that has been through so much together.

The Tab is an open platform for debate, if you disagree with the views expressed or want to put your own views out there, email [email protected] to write a response.

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