Jasmine Kiah, a University of Wisconsin senior, began playing the YG and Nipsey Hussle song “Fuck Donald Trump” and taping anti-Trump signs on the College Republicans office in the Student Activity Center, Wednesday afternoon.
A few signs read “Donald Trump is..” while others had “ignorant,” “bigot,” “racist,” “transphobic” and “sexist” printed on them.
As Kiah posted the signs on the office’s glass walls, College Republicans chairman Ryan Christens approached and took them down.
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Kiah put the signs back up saying it was an act of freedom of speech and that she would come back every day and put them back up.
Kiah said this act was not meant to send a message to UW, but that doing it simply made her feel better.
“Every day I come past and I see this office, it makes me very upset, while we have…children at the border who are taken away from their parents, their parents are taken away from them and who is it because? It is because of Donald Trump,” Kiah said.
As Kiah replaced the signs, two UW students asked to join her. Kiah was then asked to step into the SAC office and the two students continued taping up the signs.
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Kiah said people are free to interpret her signs any way they want. She also said that during her time at UW, she has witnessed all of the prejudices her signs accuse of President Trump.
“I’ve been here for four years and all four years I’ve experienced racism, I’ve seen homophobia, transphobia, I’ve seen people not treated fairly, class institutional racism all of that stuff,” Kiah said. “Everything that you could imagine, I’ve seen.”
After taping up all of the signs, Kiah left, and Christens then took them all down.
The College Republicans tweeted this in response to the incident.
TODAY: intolerant student in complete hysteria targets UW-Madison College Republican student office. Another example of total intolerance from the left in an environment that is supposed to welcome a marketplace of ideas. *disclaimer contains explicit language* pic.twitter.com/qtSDA3SKri
— GOP Badgers (@GOPBadgers) October 9, 2019
UPDATED
Meredith McGlone, UW Director of News and Media Relations, reached out to The Badger Herald with an official statement on the incident.
“UW-Madison supports the free speech rights of its students along with civil discourse around political issues,” McGlone said. “The university’s policies prohibit the posting of unapproved signs, posters and other material in public spaces.”
McGlone said the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards is currently reviewing the incident and will follow up with the appropriate action.
