Student organizations responded to a conservative student group’s messaging by chalking on the Quad outside Gorgas Library on Wednesday evening.
In a recent Instagram post, the groups said they are “pro-speech, anti-slaughter” and that the chalking is meant to “push back against” what they believe is disinformation spread by the UA chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom.
The chalking hosted by The Leftist Collective, Queer Student Association, UA College Democrats and Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity took place from 5 to 7 p.m. and came ahead of YAF’s Thursday night “Blood on the Left’s Hands” speaker event featuring conservative commentator and Virginia Delegate Nick Freitas. The student organizations said they also plan to be stationed outside the event with flyers.
“The goal is to spread positive messages to show that the left’s favorite tool is not violence,” said Sam McKinney, president of UA College Democrats. “I think this is more of an anti-YAF chalking, from my perspective at least, political violence is not a left or right issue.”
McKinney said that political violence is a country-wide issue, not tied to one specific ideology.
Christian Martin, Vice president of UA College Democrats, wanted to reassure students on the left side with the messages “health care is a human right” and “make empathy great again.”
“This is especially for left-leaning students that might have felt uncomfortable or worried based on some of the stuff they were seeing around campus,” Martin said.
He said that he had friends concerned about the rhetoric coming out of YAF after that “very divisive messages” were chalked on campus about “violence from the left-wing side.”
Julia Clark, vice president of URGE, said she wants to let LGTBQ+ students and students of color know they have a voice on campus.
“I want students to know that they’re important and that we’re here for them, especially those who belong to marginalized communities that do feel especially antagonized on this campus,” she said.
Kierston Hogue, a sophomore majoring in anthropology and a member of UA leftist collective said she believes that UA YAF is currently “targeting leftists” with its actions.
“I want to bring awareness to the rise in fascism in America right now,” she said. “I want people to know that we’re not going to stand for fascism,” she said. “We’re not going to stand for slander against our students.”
During the vigil for assassinated conservative commentator Charlie Kirk hosted by the University’s chapter of Turning Point, UA YAF chairman Trenton Buffenbarger called for unity following Kirk’s death.
“I’ve seen hundreds of people on both sides denounce this,” Buffenbarger said at the time. “It’s an act of violence. It’s a time to come together.”
In an X post following Kirk’s death, Freitas, who will speak at YAF’s “Blood on the Left’s Hands” Thursday event, referred to leftist views as a “godless” and “evil” ideology, saying that his assassination signaled that there was a “war between diametrically opposed worldviews which cannot peacefully coexist with one another.”
Buffenbarger said in a text message that the organization is “calling attention” to some leaders of left-leaning organizations at the University who he claimed laughed at and celebrated Kirk’s death. Students were tired of getting “spit on, water poured on them, and coffee poured on their tables for promoting their values,” Buffenbarger said.
“I myself am tired because I had to listen to my mom call me almost in tears asking me to stop speaking at conservative events because she thought I’d get shot,” he said. “You don’t see the right celebrating anyone getting shot, and yet the left has multiple times. When the left makes a hero of a murderer, perhaps we grow tired of it.”
Gabrielle Gunter, a graduate student in women’s studies and the director of community engagement for the Queer Student Association, said she wants to let students know that QSA is there for them.
“We won’t let people silence us and we want them to know that we’re standing up for them and their rights,” she said.
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