One of Donald Trump’s most popular and quotable presidential aspirations is to build a wall on the border of the United States and Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants from Central and South America as well as any terrorists who may want to gain entry through the porous border. The campaign promise has been such a success for Trump that he has made it a rallying cry at his speeches. The catchphrase has been adopted by many of his supporters and even trolls who want to anger oversensitive crybabies. A Tulane fraternity mocked Trump’s motto and wrote “Make America Great Again” on a wall they erected, and it of course hurt many feelings and even prompted “outraged” students to dismantle the dumb barrier.
Tulane University’s Kappa Alpha fraternity builds a wall made of sandbags around their frat house every year. Since walls are such a hot-button topic this year thanks to Mr. Trump, they decided to emblazoned “Make America Great Again” on their annual fortification for fun.
Mike Strecker, executive director of public relations at Tulane, released a statement regarding the barrier:
Every spring the Kappa Alpha (KA) fraternity erects a wall around its chapter house, which is on private property. The leadership of KA’s local chapter says that adding Donald Trump’s name and slogan to this year’s wall was done in order to satirize the candidate’s campaign promise, not to show support for him. The wall has since been dismantled.
Tulane’s KA chapter gave a statement on the silly wall:
“Our chapter takes KA’s values of gentlemanly conduct very seriously. This respect extends to every student of Tulane and every member of the broader community. The comment was written on a makeshift wall on our private property, normally used for a game of capture the flag, to mock the ideologies of a political candidate. This had an unintended negative effect and as such it has been dismantled.”
So this cheeky troll-job was done in jest, and the wall was dismantled. So end of story.
Not so fast. We can’t have a story without “outrage” and “protest.”
Before the temporary parody wall was taken down, special snowflakes were triggered and condemned the barrier (At least they’re getting offended by things more permanent than chalk).
Tulane student Dillon Pérez posted on his Facebook:
As part of Kappa Alpha Order’s (KA) annual tradition, the fraternity at Tulane University decided to build a wall around their house; however, this time they built a wall filled with connotations of hate and ignorance, directly mocking the experiences of Latino immigrants and workers throughout our nation. By writing “TRUMP” and “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” in large, red letters across their “wall,” KA changed what was a tradition of building a wall into a tradition of constructing a border, symbolizing separation and xenophobia. This issue not only affects Latinos but all other marginalized immigrant groups in this country.
In Trump’s own words, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best…they’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists” – quote from Trump’s speech announcing his presidential candidacy, June 2015
Please help us raise awareness of this persistent prejudice and share/like this post.
#StandWithYourGENTE
Some opponents of the pro-Trump wall took it to another level than a simple post on Facebook. Despite the “Make America Great Again” portion of the wall already removed, these men displayed their offense of the wall by dismantling it. Reportedly, they are members of the Tulane football team.
Kappa Alpha does have a history of support for the Confederate flag. But KA, which was founded in 1865 at Washington & Lee University (a school partly named for Confederate General Robert E. Lee), banned the Confederate flag at their frat houses, prohibited members from wearing Confederate uniforms, and outlawed “Old South” parties, parades and balls in 2010.
Even though the frat has a questionable history, that does not give anyone the right to shut down their freedom of speech and expression, especially when it is not anywhere close to hate speech.
You’re well within the laws to display your harmless political affiliation.
You’re not allowed to fuck up someone’s shit because you disagree with them.
Let me reiterate.
Writing your political views on your private property of a legitimate presidential candidate is legal.
Trespassing onto private premises and destroying property is illegal.