The 2016 election cycle has been one defined by its vitriolic and polarizing rhetoric. Derogatory words such as “crooked,” “racist,” “deplorable,” “sexist,” and “liar” have become a part of this year’s common vernacular. Politics has become, more than ever, a force that divides people as disrespect and hate have bubbled to the surface of American discourse, tearing the country apart.
Because of this, it is not surprising that these attitudes and use of language have permeated the dialogue at Yeshiva University.
As the election season came to a close, many students across the political spectrum, from both the Beren and Wilf campuses, were subjected to disrespect that ranged from short, insensitive acts to verbal attacks, mildly bordering on harassment. Some of these students opened up about their negative post-election experiences at YU.
Kira Paley, a first-year at Stern College, was taken aback by the lack of sensitivity that she witnessed after Election Day. “After Trump won, I think anyone who was invested in the election was feeling very emotional,” she said. “Regardless of what that emotion was,” Paley continued, “people were vulnerable and more susceptible to the opinions of those around them. Though I had [encountered] pro-Trump students before the election, once he won, I was more sensitive to their comments and behavior[s] because I was so upset [by] his victory.”
Paley channeled her frustration with the environment in school after the election through a Facebook post detailing one of her more upsetting experiences. When entering a classroom the day after Election Day, Kira described in her post, she saw that one student had written on the chalkboard, “Trump” followed by “#lockherup.”
“It bothered me because it was so clearly done as a provocative [response], as it was written on a chalkboard that other students were going to see, and as writing something [like this]… really doesn’t do much but start trouble,” Paley remarked.
Furthermore, Paley found that when she attempted to discuss with her peers her disappointment in the election results, she was not shown respect for her opinions. “Two days after the election, I was sitting in a class expressing how upset I was about the results, and a student sitting next to me said, ‘I don’t get why you’re so upset; why is it such a big deal?’” Paley later expressed her frustration that resulted from what she called this “inconsiderate and ignorant” response.
This insensitivity was not confined to the Beren campus; it was very present uptown on the Wilf campus as well. Moshe Gelberman, a member of YU College Democrats, was in the back of the room at the election viewing party, sitting on the floor charging his phone, when another person at the event wearing a large “Make America Great Again” sticker approached him and asked him if he was sitting on the floor “because he was depressed because Clinton was going to lose.” However, Gelberman also noted, this disrespectful behavior did not suddenly appear after the results came in, but was present in the weeks leading up to Election Day. Specifically, he brought up the mock debate event hosted by the J. Dunner Political Science Society, YU College Republicans, YU College Democrats, and The Observer.
“At the end of the debate there was a ‘Q and A’ session, the first ten minutes…[of which involved a] yelling session about abortion,” Gelberman said. He also cited one incident during the debate where the issue of sex education was brought up, to which one YC student responded, “You’re a girl, I’m a guy. That’s all you need to know.” Gelberman remarked that this comment was ignorant but “much, much more [than that], it was disrespectful.”
A Sy Syms student on the Wilf campus (who wished to remain anonymous) also cited the mock debate when discussing disrespect at YU surrounding the election. This student agreed to present the Republican stance on abortion at the mock debate even though he is not actively involved in YU College Republicans and was surprised by the hostile responses he received for his speech. Understanding the weight of the topic that he was presenting, he “kept things pretty civil” and “made sure to not say anything derogatory or overly controversial.” Despite his attempt to be respectful and non-confrontational when presenting, he was heckled by YU students during the ‘Q and A’ portion of the event for expressing his views regarding how to define life.
After the event, the student was approached by a Stern College student who called him “a joke.” Another Stern College student from YU College Democrats approached him and called him a “massive a**hole.” Although he walked away from her at the time, she again confronted him later at the event. “She approached me and said that I was a sexist and that I had implied women should bear all the burden of paying for birth control,” the student recalled. “I simply explained to her that I never implied that, and if I was somehow misunderstood, that that is not how I feel.”
Yossi Hoffman, President of YU College Republicans, also brought up the language used in the mock debate when speaking about the environment in YU leading up to Election Day. Specifically, he was taken aback when, during a discussion about affirmative action, a Stern College student representing YU College Democrats simply called the Republican side “racist” instead of debating policies.
Since the election, Hoffman has continued to feel frustrated by this; but this time, not by fellow students. In one of his classes, the professor (a rabbi) devoted the last ten minutes of class time to discuss the election instead of completing the planned shiur. Specifically, the professor expressed his views that Trump embodies nothing we hold dear and is antithetical to “us” as Jews.
“Whether or not you like Trump (and as YU College Republicans we didn’t endorse him),” Hoffman expanded, “shiur and class just [aren’t] place[s] to lecture students on [one’s] own political views, and there was no way I was going to speak up,” Hoffman said. “Arguing with a professor is never a good idea even if the majority of the class agrees with you. I’m sure others felt uncomfortable considering [that] a rabbi was forcing his political views on us. This was no shiur. Also, it was no discussion. He saved the speech for the end of class [when] no one could respond, even if [they] wanted to.”
A student at Stern College (who wished to remain anonymous) had a similar experience to Hoffman in a Political Science class the day after the election. Although her professor was not expressing his personal political beliefs or his reactions to the election results, he moderated and participated in a class discussion in which this student, along with others in her class, felt marginalized. The student, who is from Georgia, specifically felt uncomfortable with the way that Southerners and Republicans were portrayed. “It’s fine to have a discussion and talk between two parties, but the [other students] were creating an environment that was not safe… and was not a healthy [way] to actually have a discussion,” the student stated. “Politics is a conversation, not [just] facts. Where you come from and where you were brought up and your values in your family make a really big impact.”
Recognizing that conversations after the election are not only inevitable, but also necessary, the student described the way that she wished the class discussion would have happened. “To start these discussions everyone has to say, ‘You’re coming from your place and I’m coming from my place,’” the student remarked. “‘This is the reason that I have my views and this is the reason that you have your views. I 100% respect you and you 100% respect me,’” this student continued. “‘Now, let’s have a discussion about policy. Let’s have a discussion about why your view is your view, why you think that [it] is the better approach.”
After listening to her fellow students disparage Southerners, she left the classroom. “I did not feel that it was an environment where I could speak up and they would listen,” the student said. “They didn’t care what I had to say… I felt like a bystander and that is why I [left]. I did not want to be attacked.”
Following the incident, the student approached her professor who apologized and acknowledged that the class discussion was mishandled and that “two sides were not being portrayed.”
Rebecca Garber, another student at Stern College, also had a negative experience as a Southerner, post-Election Day. “As a sixth generation Southerner who comes from a very conservative family,” Garber explained, “my political opinions are definitely going to differ from those of my more liberal New York friends.” Garber continued, “The thing is, I don’t just believe what I believe because it’s what my family believes. Rather, I have taken the time to read up on the issues so that I [can] make… educated decision[s] for myself. Therefore, if you ask me for my opinion, I’m not just repeating what I hear at my dinner table. They are my own ideas. The fact that people were comparing the South to Nazi Germany after Trump won is not just hurtful and deplorable; it’s factually inaccurate. You’re not going to change the results of the election by verbally attacking your fellow classmates and making them feel like they are in an unsafe environment when they are in the classrooms of Stern.”
Although there were students who chose to mock, hurt, or disregard their peers, others chose to take steps to create a more tolerant and open dialogue at YU. One Stern College student was compelled to take action after a friend showed her a video of two Stern students engaging in a hostile debate in the hall of one of the school buildings. The student composed a Facebook post in ‘Stern College: In the Know,’ urging her fellow students to help ease the tension that was so palpable in the school by being respectful of other students’ opinions.
“We shouldn’t act as low as other people, especially with the values we are taught at our school,” the student stated, explaining what drove her to write the post. “Respecting one another is very important and I really didn’t like how everyone was so tense. I felt [that] at any moment, someone would burst.”
The reactions to her post were largely positive, with other students echoing the same sentiment and acknowledging that the environment in school was tense and that more of an effort should be made to respect and listen to our peers.
Moving forward from this strained period—for both our country and our school—it is important to acknowledge that the majority of YU students were respectful and considerate to their peers. However, there were students who were left after the election feeling disrespected, unheard, and disenfranchised. If we truly want to learn in an environment where people are tolerant of one another, diversity in opinions and backgrounds is celebrated, and constructive debate can and does occur, we need to start by listening to these students and rethinking the way that we handle conflict and debate in our university.