As students walked to class Monday morning, several locations on NC State’s campus were covered with pro-Donald Trump messages written in chalk, sparking more dialogue about the presidential candidate prior to Tuesday’s new round of primary elections.
The messages, each accompanied by #thechalkening, read, among other variations, “make America great again” (or abbreviated MAGA), “build the wall,” “secure our borders” and “NC State supports Trump.”
In front of the Caldwell Hall stairs, the pro-Trump chalk had a message for those who would be offended by their statements.
“End political correctness. If this offends you you’re part of the problem.”
This was later countered with a message reading, “I’m offended by idiots” and “YOU are the problem.”
The hashtag has caught on nationally at universities such as University of Illinois, Ohio University, University of California-Santa Barbara, DePaul, University of Michigan, Kansas, Connecticut, College of William and Mary and Tulane, sparking debate over the limits of free speech.
Nearly all of the pro-Trump messages were countered by anti-Trump messages which simply turned the statements into negatives or rebutted them. Near a heavily chalked message reading “build the wall” in Spanish, accompanied by #LatinosforTrump, was a message reading “Muslims are friends not terrorists!”
Also among the counter-chalkening were pro-Sen. Bernie Sanders messages, such as “feel the Bern.”
The university prohibits chalking on vertical surfaces.
Grainne Rafferty, a junior studying sociology, sees the American presidential campaign from an objective point of view as an Irish student studying abroad at NC State.
“I guess everyone has their freedom of speech or whatever, but I think it’s a little much,” Rafferty said. “Everyone has the right to say what they want. Everyone has an opinion, and you have the right to disagree with that opinion.”
Rafferty was surprised that he would have support among college students.
“He is charismatic in a weird way. I guess he’s not likable, but he doesn’t beat around the bush. He says what he thinks, and that is very different,” Rafferty said. “Everyone is thinking something, but because it is not politically correct, they don’t want to say it.”
Rafferty said that the political conversations in Ireland, where Trump owns International Golf Links and Hotel among other properties, are much less polarized.
“In Ireland, there are conservative and liberal parties, but I feel like here the parties are really conservative and really liberal. There is really far right and really far left,” Rafferty said. “I think the media in America is really powerful. I think they sway a lot of opinions, which is interesting.”
The rhetoric from the Trump campaign has been heating up in response to perceived slights from the Republican National Committee, which Trump has accused of manipulating the rules of the election in order to shorten Trump’s delegate lead and force a contested convention in July where Trump could be denied the party’s nomination, despite having the most delegates.
Two first-year master’s students studying social work, Alexia Montague and Michele Fidler, were also struck by the ground-level conversations going on around campus.
Montague said that as an African-American, she is concerned that if Trump can so quickly turn people against undocumented immigrants, other minorities could be at greater risk were he to win the presidency.
“Personally, I am for immigrants, especially when they are fleeing for a reason,” Montague said.
Fidler added, “It’s just sad to see that our nation has prided ourselves on giving people opportunities and we’re not even going to let people come here and have a shot.”
On the motivation for “the chalkening” Montague said that it was likely to legitimize Trump as a candidate while so much of the Republican Party is trying to undermine him.
“I think it was to send a message, to make it known that Trump does have supporters and that they are here on campus. He’s legit, and so are they.”
Jonathan Carter contributed to the reporting of this story.
"SECURE OUR BORDERS" and "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN" crossed out the words "NO THANK YOU" on the steps leading up to Caldwell Lounge on Monday, April 18, 2016.
