Campus Carrier Editorial Board
Last week, Berry finally fell prey to what some students are now calling the “chalkening.” Next to promotional messages for campus events, messages like “Trump 2016” and “Make America great again” appeared. Across the country, pro-Trump messages are being scrawled in chalk on college campuses.
Some students are claiming that it is offensive to see pro-Trump messages across campus and that they are racist and threatening. According to USA Today College, colleges like Emory University have had enormous outcries against these chalkings, forming protests and petitioning administration to ban the messages.
Here at Berry, students also became offended by a large, pro-Trump message that was written on the sidewalk leading to Krannert. All that it said was, “TRUMP 2016” and “Build That Wall.” These messages are not inherently racist or threatening by themselves, but many students feel they can be interpreted in that way. The chalking happened late on April 3, and by morning, the chalk was washed away.
The problem here isn’t whether or not you support Trump’s messages, but rather, do you respect fellow students’ rights to free speech? In a Gallup poll published this month, 72 percent of college students said they opposed campus restrictions on “expressing political views that are upsetting or offensive to certain groups.”
The survey also found that when students were asked whether “slurs” and other “intentionally offensive” language should be banned, they said they were all for it.
Gallup said that controversy may have arisen “out of the ambiguity of whether such messages are permissible expressions of controversial political viewpoints or impermissible expressions designed to hurt and threaten members of certain groups.”
Some colleges, such as the University of California at San Diego, have had to deal with messages that are threatening and racist. According to the Washington Post, one chalking at their campus read, “TRUMP 2016. BUILD THE WALL. DEPORT THEM ALL.”
While it’s not clear if Berry’s chalking was intended to be harmful, there were still several messages concerning the chalking on YikYak throughout the day that said things like, “I’m glad to see that so many Berry students are willing to support a racist candidate #yaywhitepeople” and “I don’t think people realize how disrespectful and hurtful Trump’s campaign is in general to minorities. Don’t bring that trash into campus.” While it’s perfectly OK to respond to the pro-Trump messages, it is not OK to restrict other people’s free speech.
Instead of washing away that message, a more powerful way to deal with messages that you don’t support is to write your own next to the original. One student drew a koala where the message used to be and wrote, “You asked for a wall. You got a koala. Good enough for ya?” This would have been more effective had the pro-Trump message been left alone.
The “chalkening” is not the real problem here, but oppressive student reactions are.