Trump support at @KUnews. Is this the post-racial paradise folks pretend exists? ? #RockChalkInvisibleHawk #myPWI pic.twitter.com/zjba3jtYoc
— Shegufta (@therealshegufta) March 29, 2016
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As students panic about Trump 2016 messages on their campuses, more continue to appear. In addition to incidents at Emory University and Scripps College, students at the University of Kansas and the University of Michigan have seen similar messages.
At the University of Kansas, “Vote Trump 2016” was written in chalk. While the university washed it away, that was because whoever wrote it did not get approval, as the school policy requires. Had the person sought approval, it would likely have been granted.
@EricPahls yes. Here is the policy: https://t.co/YLgHxxaFgm
— University of Kansas (@KUnews) March 30, 2016
Like students before them who were forced to gaze at such messages, those at KU jumped to all sorts of conclusions about “a post-racial paradise,” “bigotry,” and “Trump propaganda.”
That’s actually worse. Who will intervene? That means we’re not teaching Jayhawks that bigotry us unacceptable. https://t.co/5VlkEE3sZM
— Invisible Hawks (@InvisibleHawks) March 29, 2016
You could’ve used this chance to denounce that Trump propaganda. Instead you used it to be defensive. https://t.co/5VlkEE3sZM
— Invisible Hawks (@InvisibleHawks) March 29, 2016
As Campus Reform noted, Rock Chalk Invisible Hawks is a group known for protests, including against a fundraiser for kids with cancer.
Chalk messages were also discovered at the University of Michigan on Wednesday. In addition to “Trump 2016,” someone had written “#StopIslam” in chalk.
According to MLive.com, a UM student who tweeted a picture called it, “hate being spread on campus.”
Campus police were called and documented the chalking, with a promise they would continue to monitor the campus “to ensure our students have a safe environment to live, learn and dialogue.”
University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald voiced concern about the sidewalk chalk’s message, but he also acknowledged that it was free speech.
“We all understand that where speech is free it will sometimes wound,” Fitzgerald said. “But our message is this: We are fully committed to fostering an environment that is welcoming and inclusive of everyone.”
He added, “tonight, we are reminded there is much work yet to be done.”
There are theories that the messages could have come from non-students. A sophomore student, Joshua, told Fox 2 in Detroit, “my theory is that the people were white nationalists.” He even thought they were “probably connected to Nazi sites and they come to campus and what to rile things up.”
Although the chalk was easily washed away, the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations got involved to denounce the messages and the unsafe environment created. Executive director Dawud Walid mentioned they “are concerned that these recent anti-Islam and anti-immigrant messages are creating an environment in which some students, teachers and other university faculty members feel unsafe on campus.”
