The mood on the University of Wisconsin campus is somber Wednesday morning, especially among students of color, following Donald Trump’s stunning election to the presidency of the United States Tuesday.
“I feel terrible,” said sophomore Desiray Stehofsky, who voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. “We elected a president that is racist, and is sexist. He doesn’t even have any political experience. There goes America.”
Dane County, where the University of Wisconsin is located, voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton, who garnered more than 70 percent of the vote. But Trump won Wisconsin, which President Obama won twice, by a mere 28,000 votes out of nearly three million votes cast.
Some students weren’t as concerned with Trump’s policy promises — which have included deporting all undocumented people, building a wall on the nation’s southern border and banning all Muslims from entering the United States — as they were with what his election says about their fellow citizens.
“I am scared,” said sophomore Jaylen Windham, who also voted for Clinton. “It’s not even 100 percent because of Trump, but because of the people who support his ideas. It’s scary to think that the people who are actually around us think we don’t deserve the same rights that they do.”
“I’m tired,” said Maizah Tariq, a sophomore and Clinton voter. “I know a lot of things Trump has proposed will not go through, but
Trump becoming president has given people more opportunities to be bold with their racism.”
Trump’s candidacy drew the support of extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the so-called “alt right,” made up of an informal white nationalist movement.
“This will be a place in history for future generations,” said sophomore Jamie Dawson. “I am shocked, and I didn’t know so many crazy white people made up a lot of the populous. When
you have so many people of color who voted for Hillary, Trump still won. It just proves that even when we do show up, even when we try, white men and women still make up all the numbers.”
“I saw a tweet that resonated with me, it stated that people who are over 50 shouldn’t vote because they voted for racism in the past, of course they would vote for racism again,” said fifth-year senior Egal Warsame. “I was shocked because states that I’ve never seen red before were red last night. I am at loss for words, and I feel like all of the Trump supporters on campus are cowards.”
With digital signage at the Wisconsin Union and Union South already displaying the slogan “Black Lives Matter” in response to a Badger season ticket holder wearing a President Obama mask while another, in a Trump mask, held a noose around his neck, Union president DeShawn McKinney urged unity among the campus community.
“Today we awake to a new world,” McKinney wrote in a statement posted to the Union’s Facebook page. “As we begin to wrap our heads around transitioning into this next phase of our nation, we would like to reaffirm our commitment to the student body. All identities. All intersections of those identities. White, woman, Muslim, queer, transgender, Black, Latinx, Native American, Hmong, and so many more. Our spaces are your spaces. Our programming is yours. This campus is yours. Let us stand together.”
Fatoumata Ceesay and Robert Chappell contributed to this report.
Update: A previous version of this story erroneously reported that the digital signage in the Union read “Black Lives Matter” in response to the election results.
