U of Michigan Students Call Police Over 'Trump 2016,' 'Stop Islam' Chalk Markings

Trump's chalked name continues to panic college students nationwide.

Yet another campus has practically gone into lockdown over the domestic terrorism sweeping American universities -- no, not jihadists or gun violence, but "Trump 2016" chalk markings.

The Michigan Daily reports that University of Michigan president Mark Schlissel was forced to deliver a statement of the school's commitment to "creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all" after anonymous chalk markings were discovered on campus this week that read “Stop Islam,” “Trump 2016” and “Build the Wall.”

“Attacks directed toward any individual or group within our community, based on a belief or characteristic, are inconsistent with the university’s values of respect, civility and equality, “ Schlissel said. “These are core values and guiding principles that will help us as we strive to live up to our highest ideals.” He didn't elaborate on how chalk markings constitute "attacks."

University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald also issued a statement that read, in part:

Earlier today someone used chalk to write a #stopislam message on the main square in the heart of our campus known as the Diag. Attacks directed toward any member or group within the University of Michigan community, based on a belief or characteristic, are inconsistent with our values of respect, civility and equality. We all understand that where speech is free it will sometimes wound. But our message is this: We are fully committed to fostering an environment that is welcoming and inclusive of everyone. Tonight we are reminded there is much work yet to be done.

Students felt threatened enough by chalk to call University police and to file several reports with the University’s bias response team, but a group of about ten students who were dissatisfied with the administration's uncaring inaction took it upon themselves to erase the traumatizing chalk messages with water and towels by the end of the day.

“It’s irresponsible of the administration that we are actually out here with buckets of water and napkins to clean off these hateful messages and the administration isn’t taking care of it,” said Rackham student Banen Al-Sheemary. “And not only is the administration not taking care of it, they are putting us through a really difficult process. That perpetuates these really racist and hateful stereotypes that turn into violence and turn into students of color feeling unsafe on campus.”

Al-Sheemary continued:

“This is so reflective of our student campus and the depths of racism and the things that students of color have to endure and that the administration is continuously silent on. This is just another example. This is happening year after year and we’ve been telling the administration the same things over and over again.

“...[T]here should be some kind of emergency number besides the police because a lot of students of color don’t feel comfortable calling the police. They’re our only resource and that I think is ridiculous.”

"It’s nothing new,” Al-Sheemary went on. “Maybe it has just been heightened with the election, but this is just something that happened before 9/11, spiked with 9/11 and it’s not anything new and it affects a lot of students of color.”

Another student, Tahany Alsabahi, complained that the school doesn't speak out on Islamophobia often or quickly enough:

“There needs to be another resource for students, and I think, also, the University has to speak out against these things. Because oftentimes when this happens for other groups, they’re very quick to release statements and say that they don’t condone anti-Semitism or any other type of stuff like that, but it gets really iffy and it becomes really difficult to get them to speak out against Islamophobia.”

 On the chalkings and free speech, Alsabahi commented: “When speech can incite violence and aggression and hatred towards another group, that’s when it becomes hate speech,” she said.

​As TruthRevolt has previously reported, similar chalk markings have terrified students at campuses at Emory University, Scripps, and the University of Kansas.

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