CU Boulder’s Black Student Alliance held a protest in the UMC Tuesday afternoon in opposition to President-elect Donald Trump winning the presidential election last week. Linking arms and forming a chain down the hallway in front of the Alferd Packer Grill area, about three-dozen participants chanted “White silence is violence, white silence is compliance,” “America was never great, but we will make it great” and “Black lives matter.”
“Given the recent election, we thought it was important to have voices that are often marginalized in this community, not just in America, but even at CU Boulder,” said Biruktawit Zelalem, director of events for BSA. “And we thought that we needed to create space for black voices.”
Zelalem led the chants at the protest, which voiced concerns that Trump is racist, sexist and homophobic.
“It’s time for our voices to be heard in a disruptive manner that draws attention, because there are people here who voted for Trump, who think like Trump, that believe in his ideology, and we don’t support that,” she said.
The students chanted for 10 minutes inside, and about an hour later held a “die-in” in the UMC fountain area. The die-in started with more chanting, and after a signal, all the participants simultaneously laid down for five minutes while holding makeshift death certificates marked with the date of the election.
“It’s supposed to show that this country was founded on hate, and we are not going to continue to act like this country was great,” Zelalem said. “We’re going to make sure that people know not only that black and brown bodies have died for this country, but we are continuing to die every single day for this country, and we don’t need to. This is a demonstration to show that we are people too.”
BSA also protested the election at a CU basketball game on Monday night, and has covered the campus with quotes and slogans written in sidewalk chalk denouncing the president-elect.
Contact CU Independent News Staff Writer Carina Julig at Carina.Julig@colorado.edu.
