“Build the wall” is an “ugly and racist” thing to say in the eyes of the anti-Trump Southern California high school students featured in a recent national evening news report on Univision.
The students, some of whose parents are not authorized to be in the country, decided to wear “Dump Trump” emblazoned t-shirts to school in order to protest the ominous-sounding “harassment and offenses” they have been subjected to.
But when asked to identify the horrible harassment, the students only pointed to having to hear the specific phrase “Build the wall,” in addition to seeing a cartoon posted on the high school Republican Club’s social media account that made fun of protesters outside a recent Trump rally site who blamed Trump, instead of accepting responsibility themselves, for having destroyed a police cruiser.
Here’s Univision’s Jaime García sitting down with the students to hear just what it was that provoked them to don their “Dump Trump” tees.
ANTHONY AGAMO, STUDENT: There’s a group of students that are Republican, and they have a page on Instagram and they post a lot of ugly and racist things against Latinos.
ALEXIA ALVAREZ, STUDENT: They say things like “Build the wall” and a lot of bad things, and say to take all the immigrants out.
Notice the referenced cartoon in question during the clip. Univision failed to display the cartoon in its entirety, perhaps because it actually just doesn’t fit what has become a constant narrative on their broadcasts: that anyone who favors border security and favors federal immigration law enforcement is by definition racist, anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic.
In this instance, the only thing positive that can be said about these high school students is that unlike their counterparts at the violent anti-Trump riot nearby, at least they had the decency to make their views known in a peaceful manner.
Below is the transcript of the cited report from Noticiero Univision broadcast on April 4:
NOTICIERO UNIVISION
5/4/2016
6:33:32 PM – 6:36:00 PM EST | 2 MIN 27 SEC
MARIA ELENA SALINAS, ANCHOR, UNIVISION: A group of students at a high school in California used shirts that displayed slogans against the mogul [Donald Trump]. The students staged their protest in a peaceful way, and said that they’re doing it to counter the harassment and offenses they receive from white students. Jaime García explains to us how school authorities reacted.
JAIME GARCIA, REPORTER, UNIVISION: The protests against Republican candidate Donald Trump in Costa Mesa, California a week ago gave way to the political activism of seven Hispanic students from Newport Harbor High School in Costa Mesa, California, who the day after the protest decided to wear to school shirts that have the phrase in English “Dump Trump”, which can be translated in Spanish as “Drop Trump”.
SUSANA CHINGAY, STUDENT: It means not just “Dump Trump”, but it also signifies that I have a voice for my parents who are undocumented.
JAIME GARCIA, REPORTER, UNIVISION: They explain that their shirts are an answer to the harassment and offenses from white non-Hispanic students, which from last semester openly echo the anti-immigrant slogans of Donald Trump.
ANTHONY AGAMO, STUDENT: There’s a group of students that are Republican, and they have a page on Instagram and they post a lot of ugly and racist things against Latinos.
ALEXIA ALVAREZ, STUDENT: They say things like “Build the wall” and a lot of bad things, and say to take all the immigrants out.
JAIME GARCIA, REPORTER, UNIVISION: But the use of their t-shirts cost them a trip to the principal of the high school.
ALONDRA PERDOMO, STUDENT: He told me, you have to take it off, you have to come with me, because the principal said it could cause problems.
JAIME GARCIA, REPORTER, UNIVISION: California’s education law says that a school cannot prohibit free speech, unless it incites violence.
GABRIELA ALVAREZ, MOTHER OF ALEXIA ALVAREZ: The principal said they had to take off the shirts, and I asked him “why”, they did nothing when other students wearing other shirts, and that it was discrimination.
JAIME GARCIA, REPORTER, UNIVISION: The controversy created because of these shirts has brought to the surface the great social and ethnic divisions that for many years has been lived in silence inside the classrooms of this school, where 52% of the students are non-Hispanic whites, and only 38% of Latino origin. The principal recognized that there are “inappropriate things happening, and as we become aware of the situation, we’re looking for proactive ways to solve them.”
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE STUDENT: They’re now letting us put the shirts back on.
SUSANA CHINGAY, STUDENT: Lots of people have been saying “Oh, we like your shirts, can I buy one, where can I get one?”
