Those who support Donald Trump on campus continue to be punished, as his campaign slogan of “Make America Great Again” is considered a racial attack by Skidmore College’s Bias Response Group. The incidents took place in March and April in separate buildings on the whiteboard of two female faculty of color, including one who had “immigrant parentage,” The College Fix reported.

The messages were described as “Written slur or graffiti” in the group’s report. In the case of the faculty member who had “immigrant parentage,” the summary noted that the slogan “is associated with the political campaign of a candidate widely known to voice anti-immigrant and bigoted views.”

The BRG’s response “acknowledges that political speech is free and protected,” though there is a but in there, enabling the BRG to condemn the messages:

As a group, though, we are committed to the idea that political speech is open, engaged, and part of a public debate. These seemingly connected reports suggest a pattern of using the idea of political speech to target specific members of the Skidmore community with biased messaging. As such, the BRG does not interpret these messages as political speech but as racialized, targeted attacks.



The hysteria is similar to chalking incidents revealing pro-Trump messages at universities across the country in the spring, which is when the messages appeared at Skidmore. The overreaction from the first message at Emory University led to a contest in which numerous schools participated with chalk messages of their own.

The reactions were harsher at some schools than others. Hailey Puckett was called on to resign from her newly elected position on student government at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga for her pro-Trump message.

Skidmore’s BRG defines bias as:

an act of bigotry, harassment, or intimidation involving a member of the Skidmore community that a reasonable person would conclude is directed at a member or group within the Skidmore community based on race, color, ethnicity, nationality, economic background, age, physical and mental health or ability, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity or expression, marital status, veteran status, or religious practice.



The website also points to a “Bias Response Flow Chart” and a “Preferred Name Form.”