Presidential candidate Donald Trump scheduled a rally at the UIC Pavilion this past Friday. The protestors’ presence against the support of Trump resulted in the cancellation of the event.
Prior to the rally, UIC’s community had reactions to the idea of having a racist public figure hold a gathering promoting hatred. As a response, many students joined a protest group to voice their dislike in his political views. A well-organized group was lead by some of the following: Juan Rojas, Cassie Robledo, Nathaniel Lewis, Usama Ibrahim, Asha Binbek, Miguel Del Toral, and Ethan Viets-VanLear.
The protestors’ main concern was safety from the beginning stages of assembly. The atmosphere was vocal, passionate, and rowdy, but violence was not a plan of act for the protestors. It was a peaceful protest in and outside of the Pavilion.
After the news of the cancellation, many Trump supporters were frustrated. Comments were made that only Trump supports should have been allowed to attend the event as news of over capacity rose. Some believe that the police advised Trump and his staff to cancel due to safety reasons. However, the police stated that they never mentioned cancelling. Enforcement had the situation under control.
The extra victory emotions from the protestors and the aggravation from Trump followers after the cancellation news created a conflict of chants. “Trump!” and side hate comments were reiterated as a response to “We stopped Trump!”
The topic of immigration was a popular one. Racial slurs and disgusted glances were given as a condescending signal by pro-Trump individuals. “Build that wall!” was echoed multiple times at the scene. What was especially disgusting was the sight of seeing the Hitler hand gesture.
It was interesting that after the incident, Donald Trump voiced his irritation against the “violence” at the rally when he has encouraged physical response by his followers against anti-Trump individuals previously. He has gone on far to say that he’ll pay for legal fees if one of his followers gets into an altercation.
UIC came as a unified school to exemplify our support for all races, genders, and individuals. Know one thing Trump, we’re not thugs, criminals, and we certainly don’t hate our country. We’re here for one thing, to embrace our diverse cultures, strive for equal rights, and work towards a stronger America.
We all have freedom of speech. We just used our first basic freedom to say not in our school, not in our city, and we’ll do whatever we can to educate the nation that we’re not okay with your hatred.