With the general election heating up and it looking nearly impossible for anyone other than Donald Trump to win the GOP ticket, NYU students find themselves torn, especially those who support the controversial businessman. In a recent article from The New York Post, NYU students who plan on voting for Donald Trump express concern for their safety and grades while roaming a campus full of liberal students and faculty.
“Supporters generally try to keep it hidden from the rest of the student body,” said Dylan Perera, a 22-year-old computer-science major from LA. “They’re afraid of losing friends, being ridiculed in class, getting worse grades and are even afraid of being assaulted and physically hurt.”
That’s pretty f*cked up, but it gets worse. Dylan then goes on to describe an incident in which he was verbally attacked by another student after they learned that he supported the GOP frontrunner.
“She freaked out and started yelling and screaming in my face, calling me a racist and a fascist. It was impossible to even have a conversation,” he explained to The New York Post. Unfortunately, Dylan is far from the only person being harassed for his beliefs.
An anonymous 21-year-old student would only talk to a Post reporter in a private room on campus for “security reasons.” Unfortunately his professor outed him as a Trump supporter on Friday despite explicitly asking to not bring up his political beliefs in front of his classmates. So much for remaining anonymous.
He recalled being ostracized by his “radical social-justice warrior” roommates. “Their hatred towards me started escalating after we had a few political discussions,” he said.
As Trump spoke during a televised GOP debate he was watching, his roommates drowned out the candidate by playing an anti-Trump video on their computer at maximum volume.
“Either you’re on their side or you’re a racist f–k, in their eyes,” the student said. “I’ve learned just to bottle up [my response]” to such antagonizing.
Considering the 57,000-student campus is famously liberal — and the fact that it’s right in the middle of New York City — his fears of being attacked or shunned because of his political beliefs are valid. The possibility of other supporters roaming college campuses is extremely high. After all, he is sweeping the country’s primary elections and is pretty much guaranteed to take the GOP ticket come November. But with the inability to talk freely amongst their peers during such a heated time in American history, what is there to do?
According to The Post, supporters have managed to come together through Facebook and sporadic meet-ups.
“It’s really decentralized” because “most people are too afraid to start an official group,” explained Perera of the “word-of-mouth network.” He estimates there are about 30 unofficial “members” of the Trump underground.
Another junior, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she typically steers clear of public debates that will reveal her pro-Trump beliefs.
“It can get hostile,” she said, recalling recent political spats between students on Facebook. “They’ll usually throw around words like ‘racist’ or ‘bigot’ about Trump and then call the students trying to defend him ‘delusional.’”
If there’s one thing I learned in life, it’s to never talk politics with people you want to befriend. It never end well! And while I’m always up for a good debate, things can get really bad very quickly. It’s a f*cked up truth — you should be able to believe whatever you want and not be attacked for it — but alas, that’s not the country we live in. Someone will always be judging you no matter what, so say what you want and do it loudly — even if you’re surrounded by a bunch of Bernie Bros.
