Student protests voice anger with Trump victory
Protests have erupted on campus and in the greater Los Angeles community in the wake of Tuesday night’s election results, which propelled Donald Trump to the presidency.
Early on Wednesday morning just after the results were announced, nearly 150 USC students held a spontaneous protest near Tommy Trojan. One student called for students to oppose an oppressive system that discriminates against minorities.
“We’re not against white people – we’re against white supremacy, the white supremacists and patriarchy,” one student said. “We’re going to have to wake up and take back our country for the people, not for these political parties, not for Democrats and Republicans, to free people from oppression.”
On Wednesday night, hundreds of people circled around the Los Angeles City Hall, going on the freeway, waving anti-trump posters and chanting “F-ck Donald Trump,” drowning out car honks. The event organized by individuals from the Answer Coalition was aimed at protesting Donald Trump’s presidential win.
After circling the City Hall building, the crowd, composed mostly of students and young adults, stopped in front of it and began chanting slogans such as, “Hey hey ho ho Donald trump has got to go,” “Not my president” and “No KKK, No fascist USA, No Trump.” Posters contained messages such as “Stand with immigrants, black lives, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and low-wage workers.”
One protester sported a Guy Fawkes mask, while others brandished pig masks and even Trump’s decapitated head on a stick. A few people climbed on top of the traffic pole, waving the Mexican and American flags, almost lighting the latter on fire before someone else in the crowd stopped them, saying that the protest was about love and not hate.
A megaphone was passed around, giving people a chance to voice how they felt.
“I’m the child of immigrants, and I got pregnant at 16, and I was lucky enough to get an abortion, and I didn’t have anyone challenge my rights,” said one young woman present at the event. “But I still had [people] follow me to my mother’s car and scream in my face when I was having the worst day of my life. I have never ever regretted that decision. [Support] reproductive rights!”
Several USC students attended the rally as well, including senior Beatrix Lu.
“I think it’s really important to show that Trump is not a president for all the people like he said he would be,” Lu said. “Even though a democratic transition is the hallmark of our democracy, that’s why we’re here protesting, as is our right, as opposed to violently being in the streets. We are here to show him that love does trump hate,” Lu said.
According to Lu, the goal of the protest was to show that people Trump has insulted throughout the campaign would not allow his win to silence them.
“The problem with Trump is that no one knows what his policies actually are, because he is a demagogue and he tended to flip-flop on everything, but we reject that our lives do not matter to him, as women, as queers and as people of color,” Lu said.
Junior Michelle Montepiedra, who majors in international relations, also voiced her opposition to Trump’s presidency.
“I and a lot of students have more knowledge than Donald Trump, and I don’t think that’s right, where we’re college students and we know more than our president,” Montepiedra said. “I hope I can make my voice heard and amplify the other voices here.”
While I share the position of opposing Trump, I also acknowledge that he will be the President, including your and my President. I do not wish him failure, because that is America’s failure.
On the other hand, there are ways to oppose what he might do, within the legal framework.
Stupid demonstrations ACCOMPLISH *nothing*. It will not stop his inauguration, it may only provoke backlash against those you care about.
Join the only organization that presently exists to combat Trump: the Democratic Party.
Students now carry a big burden: They did not get out and vote, as a group. They stayed home like petulant children. Now, they allow themselves to be manipulated by various factions that are not about love, but about hate, and about violence, and about chaos, and attacking all institutions of America.
You don’t make ANYTHING better by blocking roads, and making it hard for working people to get to work, or to pick up their children from childcare. In fact, you are telling them that Trump is RIGHT, and you push them into his arms—–because they are working people, and you don’t care about THEM—just like he said.
Consider your actions carefully….
grow up and get a job… omg – I do not know what happened.. these generation of whiners came out of hard working people… didn’t you guys learn a thing besides whine???
Whatever happened to the tolerance that you folks espoused over all these years? The vote for Trump has proven that the direction America was being steered towards was not workkng, so we have taken control back from the oppression of the Obama admin, the Leftists that drive the Democratic Party aka the New American Socialist Party.
The protests and destruction we are seeing being reported around the country are not spontaneous events. They are planned and funded by anarchist groups who want to continue to control and manipulate the weak minded, the mentally ill, the crazy people, uninformed citizens and non citizens to revolt.
Do you want to a part of something that is destructive and evil or be a part of the American dream and continue to pursue your education and then enter adulthood with a degree and a job?
The information you’ve been fed by Hillary and the Left’s propaganda machine ab I UT Trump being a racist, muslim hater, anti abortionist are all wrong. The Left’s goal is to manipulate you in order to continue to exercise their power and control over you. Yes you.
Read up on a Trump’s platform and you’ll see that he’s not what Hillary and others have portrayed him to be.
As for the abortion issue, Trump’s personal philosophy will not be law. The law is the law and we want the law to be taken care of and followed.
What we do want is to make it illegal to abort baby’s just for the convenience of the mother. Birth control is not to be used for aborting your baby. There are too many devices and means of providing responsible and effective birth control today vs when Roe v Wade was made law.
Yes we all have heard that women want the right to choose how they manage their personal healthcare, so m if that’s true:
1. Be responsible for yourself and get on a birth control regimen
2. If you get pregnant, keep the baby to term and put y I ur child up for adopti I n. There are thousands of couples who cannot conceive who would a sweet, adorable American baby where the history of the mother can be documented.
3. You want control over your body as you say, then take control over your pocket book and stop going after the sperm donor. Stop forcing the courts to effect child support from the guy you had casual sex with. He doesn’t have a say about your decision to keep or not keep the baby. Be responsible for yourself.
You cannot have it both ways. It’s hypocritical to rational thought.