Two students are encouraging others to carry posters to class and around campus this week to protest the Donald Trump presidency. The posters can be about any progressive issue or protest any policy that has arisen under the new president.
Junior economics major Insaaf Mohamed came up with the idea after learning of the executive order prohibiting the citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States. Junior public policy major Brian Fields said he quickly joined her efforts after hearing about it.
Mohamed brought the poster she used in the Women’s March on Raleigh to class the Monday after the ban was enacted and decided to create a Facebook event called “Posters! for Resistance!” urging others to do the same this week. Students wanting to participate can make their own posters independently or use posters from recent protests.
“Essentially it is mobilization for people on campus to start talking about and to, like, just get more involved against the stuff that the administration is doing by just bringing up conversation in class,” she said. “Essentially just bringing the resistance or protest to the classroom, because if there’s a protest or rally in front of a building, people can just avoid it, but in class people aren’t able to look away.”
Junior biology major Navi Bal is planning on participating in the poster event throughout the week. She said the event is an important way to fuel discussions regarding progressive issues and contested public policies.
“I think being at UNC, being on a college campus that is liberal, you kind of just feel that like everyone is on the same page about everything, and you don’t really have those conversations or you don’t feel forced into those conversations,” Bal said.
Mohamed is trying to plan a meeting with participants on Friday to discuss their experiences and create a framework for future action. She hopes to create a coalition focused on solidarity and intersectionality among student organizations to fight against discriminatory policies and facilitate social change.
“I just hope that everyone respects democracy and freedom of speech and freedom of expression, so if I have to hear what everyone else has to say that’s fine, as long as I’m able to be able to protest and be able to speak my voice and not infringe on anyone else’s voice,” Mohamed said.
Fields said his commitment to defending marginalized groups affected by negative public policies is, for him, as much bound in patriotism as it is in morality.
