As of recent weeks, it seems to become more prevalent that SUNYs are allowing any type of disrespect towards their students of color. The first incident that happened recently was at SUNY Plattsburgh. A student put on their SnapChat story that they were “Lynching niggers tonight.” The screenshots of student’s post caught like wildfire throughout social media and caused immediate uproar and protest on the campus. Students protested with signs and chants walking throughout the campus and made a list of demands. If the student was not expelled other student body would not attend class or use the dining halls. Since the demands and protests happened the student has not be expelled from campus but moved into a different living situation for her safety.
The second incident comes from SUNY Oswego. A member of the Young Republicans club was seen tabling in Marano Campus Center with a shirt saying, “I lived through Obama, now you can live through Trump.”
In theory there is nothing wrong with someone wearing a shirt that shows their political affiliation or political preferences. I wear a hoodie that says “Black Lives Matter” and I receive the same strange looks this young lady above has surely received from people who do not understand her political affiliation. This photo as well caught fire on people’s SnapChat stories who expressed their grave disagreement with the statement on her shirt.
Like I said before there is nothing wrong with wearing a shirt or hat that shows your ideology but let's break down this ideology. The implication of her shirt is obviously that she was dissatisfied with the presidency Obama had. It could be for a multitude of reasons; economics, foreign relations, and taxes (not limited to these specific reasons). Some people did not like Obama, and that is something people need to accept.
But to say because she “lived through” the terrible experience that was Obama (for her) and “now you can live through Trump” shows that she is purposefully using her power to vote to play a childish game with the future of this country and make others suffer the way she feels she suffered under Obama. What part of that speaks to the democracy the colonizers or “forefathers” of America had in mind for the future? Not only does this shirt display a childish game she must think the voting process is but that she knows Trump is a horrible and terrible leader for marginalized people of this country and blatantly doesn’t give a fuck that we need to ban together as a country to make any differences happen. That is what students had a problem with and expressed on social media even if they weren’t fully aware of that being their problem with the shirt.
Of course word got out about students disagree with the girl’s shirt and the club made a statement on their Facebook page that says the following:
This was an amazing message that they released to save face for what actually occurred at that table. They’re making it seem as if the photo went around because of people arguing about “Second Amendment rights” when really one of your club member’s shirt has grasped our attention as students who will be affected by Trump’s policies and decisions. The message ends with an invitation to their club meetings which takes place on Mondays at 8pm in Marano Campus Center in room 322. Unfortunately that Monday I couldn’t attend but a friend of mine went and told me that they spoke of a couple things and then ended the meeting early. She glanced at their slides and saw the entire presentation looked ready. So why end the meeting early? More important what was on the rest of those slides?
This past Monday, March 19th, 2018 I was able to attend a meeting for the College Republicans with my friend and other students of color. The discussion was moderate and calm for the most part. The thing that struck me were the videos they played to start the discussions about things like Trump’s idea for building a wall, racism in America and police brutality. They used the website https://www.prageru.com/ to show information on topics and to start the discussion. For race most of their arguments came from using facts and statistics but other arguments tried to reach and use “black on black crime” as some sort of rational to justify why black people may not be ahead in certain areas.
