After Donald Trump was named president-elect Nov. 9th, some Marquette students celebrated the results and others coped with them. Some responded with prayer while others took to the streets to protest.
Various cultural organizations on campus held an event Thursday, Nov. 10th, in Westowne Square, calling for solidarity in the Marquette community in response to the election.
Students and faculty members linked arms to signify their joint support for minority students who felt victimized by Trump’s rhetoric during the election. They were also invited to join in an interfaith unity prayer at the Chapel of the Holy Family in the Alumni Memorial Union.
Students held signs reading “end hate,” “love wins” and “standing in solidarity.” Attendees chanted “We are Marquette.”
Later that night, Marquette students joined the thousands of Milwaukee residents who gathered in Red Arrow Park for an “emergency march against Trump.”
Marchers shouted various chants such as, “Donald Trump go away. Racist, sexist anti-gay,” “Black lives matter” and “P***y grabs back.”
Melissa Alburo, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, attended the march and voiced her frustration with the president-elect.
“The way he has handled this election and the way he presented himself shows there is no reason for him to have any spot in the White House,” Alburo said.
Alburo said she does not consider Trump her president due to comments about immigrants and the LGBT community.
Another student at the event emphasized the importance of nonviolent protest.
“You have to do this peacefully and rightfully,” Hannah Seeman, a sophomore in the College of Communication, said. “You can’t shame anybody who supported Trump because that’s not what America is about, and you would just be stooping to his level.”
The march was organized by various coalitions such as the Progressive People Movement, Black Student Union and Students for Justice in Palestine. Chapters from Marquette, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Milwaukee Area Technical College organized the event.
The Marquette and Milwaukee communities are not the first to have such strong reactions to the election results. Over 10 cities across the country had protests, including New York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Baltimore and Dallas, according to CNN and other news outlets.
In response to the reaction from the student body, the Marquette administration sent out a letter late last week, calling for unity after the election results were announced.
The letter, titled “Dialogue, not division,” encouraged students with differing viewpoints to have a conversation instead of showing hostility.
Provost Daniel Myers, Vice President for Student Affairs Xavier Cole and Executive Director for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion William Welburn all signed the letter.
“Differing viewpoints are natural and healthy, and we are all individuals,” Myers said. “But we have two important commonalities: we’re all human and we are all part of the Marquette family.”
Matthew Harte contributed to this story.
Cheryl Justyce • Nov 17, 2016 at 2:32 pm
Marquette shows yet again what a liberal brain-washing institution they are. Funny how these students wanting to show “love wins” and “end hate” are promoting the terrorist hate-filled racial group known as Black Lives Matter and demonstrating their true colors of hate, racism and name-calling… the same names you’ve been calling every conservative you come across instead of respecting their opinions (Then you wonder why you lost the election LOL). I’m betting half of these sensitive snowflakes never even showed up to the polls, thus making their protests even more hypocritical than they already are! If you liberals want to have any sort of “dialog”, knock off the childish, un-American, immature behavior, law breaking and constant barrage of insults you throw at us and maybe, just maybe we’ll take you sad lot seriously.
(Prof) Michael Cover, Department of Theology • Nov 16, 2016 at 10:27 am
Remember, Remember
Thank you to Ms. Carballo for another excellent article on the election cycle, and to Provost Dan Myers for his encouragement of constructive “dialogue” as the Marquette community processes America’s choice. Indeed, the spirit of American democracy is one in which peaceful protests are encouraged. It is worth noting, however, that not everyone who participated in the MKE protests agrees. In the 15 November 2016 print edition of the Tribune (p.3), the picture by Mr. Austin Anderson shows hauntingly, among the protesters, a figure dressed as the DC graphic novel vigilante, “V for Vendetta” (made into a film in 2006). V is not a figure of peaceful protest, but a proponent of anarchist violence aimed at destroying the government. V takes his mandate from the British political insurgent Guy Fawkes, one of the key strategists in the 1605 “Gunpowder Plot” to destroy the houses of parliament. Where Guy Fawkes failed, V succeeds. All the more so, on this 16 November 2016, members of the Marquette community have a responsibility to study history (and graphic novels) to better understand the symbols that they and their fellow protesters are deploying. “Remember, remember, the fifth of November…”