Bowser With Make American Great Again Hat
Donald Trump 'Make America Great Again' hat causes stir at MRU
Concern over "safe spaces" at a Calgary university boiled over into a confrontation this week between two students, one of whom was wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat.
The incident — in which a female student at Mount Royal University insists that a male remove the hat commonly worn by Donald Trump supporters — came to light Thursday after a video emerged online.
In it the woman approaches a man asking him to take the hat off, arguing the slogan stands for hate language. The man refuses, insisting that he is in a public place and has the right to freedom of expression. He rejects the suggestion that it's a hateful message.
The video ends shortly after another student, apparently a friend of the hat wearer, snatches the hat away.
Security responded to the confrontation, but no sanctions are being contemplated.
Melanie Rogers, a spokeswoman for Mount Royal University, said officials are aware of the video but would not comment on specifics.
"Mount Royal University respects individuals who exercise their constitutionally-protected right to freedom of expression, as long as it is peaceful and respectful," Rogers said.
Since the video appeared online, the woman taking issue with the hat has posted a Facebook response explaining her concerns.
"Today (Wednesday) I got into an altercation with a guy wearing a 'Make America Great Again' hat. I went up and asked him if he would take the hat off, explaining a university should be a safe space," she said.
"It was impossible to communicate to him why wearing a hat in support of a movement grown on the seeds of racism, bigotry and exclusion of diversity (sexual and cultural) could make some people afraid," she added.
The woman involved in the dispute, Zoe Slusar, told Postmedia in a written statement Thursday that: "He is allowed to wear the hat."
"As a student, I disagree with what the hat represents," she said. "I have diverse friends (culturally and sexually) who would drop a class if the person wearing the hat was sitting in the room with them, because they would feel unsafe. Given the deeper issues of intolerance and oppression represented by the hat, I disagree with it."
Ian Soliterman, who filmed the interaction between Slusar and his friend Matt Linder, who was wearing the hat, said he thinks Slusar "big time overreacted."
"I'm all for freedom of speech and saying what you believe in, but when you're infringing upon someone else's freedom of speech, telling them to take off a hat, especially if it doesn't directly offend anyone, it just says 'Make America Great Again,'" he said in a phone interview.
"So I thought it was worth exposing and honestly just to see what my friends would say — I was just going to show it to my friends and put it on Facebook, and then I guess it got a lot of shares."
Soliterman said he has been following the American election closely and is a Trump supporter. He said he believes the 'Make America Great Again' slogan refers to economic reasons, not "anything hateful at all."
Students and campuses across North America have been urging the creation of "safe spaces," ensuring all students are protected from intolerance. In some instances, critics have deemed them to be an exercise in political correctness.
With files from Yolande Cole.
mlumsden@postmedia.com
Source: https://canoe.com/news/local-news/donald-trump-make-america-great-again-hat-causes-stir-at-mru
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