Waiting for the Rain

In my afternoon course today, my lovely fellow-Dearbornite classmate turned to me during a break to share a photo of two chalk drawings that dominated the epicenter of the campus footpath.  One message used the brass block M – the M -- to spell out "Trump 2016."  Just below it, in equally large letters:  "#StopIslam."   

While I am deeply troubled by everything that is Donald Trump, I respect the creative use of this stupidly coveted letter of the Wolverines.  I feel deeply uncomfortable about the idea that anyone anywhere supports a man running on an explicitly violent, sexist, racist platform, but I'm not necessarily going to demand that his name is removed from this dominating position in the walkway. 

However.  #StopIslam.  No.  Just no.

So, I called Campus Operations, and I told them about the hashtag chalk writing.  I explained that I found it extremely offensive and troubling, and I requested that someone rinse off that chalk.  

Campus Operations basic response to me:  No.  Just no.  

The woman to whom I spoke kindly explained that it was their policy to not remove any of the chalk writing unless it includes profanity, so that writing will just have to stay there until the next rainfall.  

By the time I had made the call, some wise, justice-minded person that had passed before my friends and me had smudged out the word "stop."  But, like a healing wound, I could still see the damage that had previously been done.  I felt that all traces of it should be eradicated.  I felt that there should be a resounding campus response that that's not what we are about.

Let me just be clear that I am perfectly aware of the counterargument to the chalk removal.  I know that the First Amendment to the US Constitution protects freedom of speech and freedom of religion, side by side.  I need not give my elementary analysis of constitutional law here. And, again, I will hold myself back from ranting about a nation with viable presidential hopefuls who promote oppression. 

But, what I want to dig my heels in about for a moment is the University of Michigan and its supposed commitment to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”  While I mostly understand why that perfectly kind woman at Campus Operations would not scrub down the diag, I still feel that intentionally, institutionally washing it away was the right thing to do.  I feel like it was a moment when the university could take a stance that this campus does not tolerate that sort of exclusion, that it acknowledges the inequities that exist for the Muslim American community, and that it wants to promote a welcoming environment for a diverse community of students. 

My classmate who initially shared the photo with me is a Muslim.  And, in that moment of eye contact after we both looked at the image, I could feel her disappointment and alienation.  I could feel the frustration from 900 similar experiences of discrimination that she had confronted previously.  And, I couldn’t help but think (…though not for the first time…) that this whole “leaders and best/Michigan difference” rhetoric is a croc of shit.    

Today, perhaps, I will call another UM department to file my complaint.  And, when I get around to buying some sidewalk chalk of my own, I will have a different message to write on the diag:

#StopChristianPrivilege

#Understandwhiteprivilege

#AcknowledgeOppression