Chalkening

One of the chalkings at Emory University

The Chalkening was a protest that occurred on university campuses across the United States in March and April 2016, publicized by Trump social media director Dan Scavino and Ryan Fournier, National Chair of Students for Trump and John Lambert National Vice Chair.^[1][2] Dozens of universities were affected.^[2] This protest mainly took the form of chalk writing in public areas on campus with slogans in support of the United States Presidential candidate, Donald Trump, such as "Trump 2016".^[3][4][5]

This mass, chalk-based, protest happened alongside an outpouring of media criticism of an incident at Emory University in March 2016. An Emory university administrator sent an email expressing support for students who claimed to feel threatened and unsafe by hate speech in the form of pro-Trump chalkings on the campus.^[6]

The criticism of the anti-Trump Emory students was a backlash that arose out of a perceived pattern of coddling by university administrators of certain groups of university students that hold unreasonable views on the standards of public discourse. The chalkening phenomenon has come amid heightened tensions on American university campuses surrounding the 2016 Presidential Campaign, which has sometimes included violence. Perceived microagressions, such as the chalkening, has been belittled by some commentators attempting to contrast it with world events in 2016 like such as genocide and war.^{[7][8][9][10]}

The Chalkening has been covered by multiple television and online media outlets.^[11] Its Twitter hashtags are #chalkening] and #TheChalkening. The name is derived from the internet phenomenon of jokingly naming events by creating a portmanteau of the description with "happening", such as in the case of "The Fappening". The term may also be intended to be comically reminiscent of a 2011 horror film, The Awakening, since the Emory University students were horrified by the pro-Trump chalkings.^[12] It has become a viral internet phenomenon, including giving rise to numerous memes.^[13]

In mid April, DePaul University banned the use of chalk on campus sidewalks after the College Republicans organized a chalking event where students wrote pro-Trump messages.^[14][15]

References

1. Max Kutner,"Armed with chalk, Trump supporters are a new breed of College Republicans", Newsweek, 9 April 2016
2. Tesfaye, Sophia (11 April 2016). "Trump's Call for College Supporters to Express Themselves With Chalk Leaves Campuses Full of Racist Messages". AlterNet. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
3. Katie Rogers, “Pro-Trump Chalk Messages Causing Conflicts on Campuses", The New York Times, 1 Apr 2016.
4. G. Aleister, “#TheChalkening – Students for Trump troll campuses", Legal Insurrection, 3 Apr 2016.
5. John Steele, “The Chalkening", YouTube, 2 Apr 2016.
6. Kim LaCapria, Chafe Spaces: A controversy at Emory University over graffiti promoting Donald Trump led to some predictably inaccurate media reports.", Snopes, 24 Mar 2016.
7. Funny or Die, and Hulu, “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Talks to Young Voters”, YouTube, 8 Feb 2016.
8. Ben Axelson, “UAlbany bus assault: Black women lied about 'hate crime' attack, police say", Syracuse.com, 26 Feb 2016.
9. Justin Moyer, “Oberlin College sushi ‘disrespectful’ to Japanese", The Washington Post, 21 Dec 2015.
10. Editorial Board, “Team Obama finally admits the truth of ISIS genocide", New York Post, 17 Mar 2016.
11. Trish Regan, “04-01-16 Kat Timpf on The Intelligence Report - Trump Chalk Drawing Offense", Fox Business Network, 1 Apr 2016.
12. Allum Bokhari, “Students 'Afraid' After Pro-Trump Chalk Messages Appear on Campuses Across America", Breit Bart, 2 Apr 2016.
13. User timberwolf81470, “'Star Wars No' Trump Chalk Meme", ImgFlip, 27 Apr 2016.
14. "DePaul U. bans use of chalk on sidewalks after pro-Trump messages offend". The Washingtion Times. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
15. "DePaul University Bans Chalk Because It Can Be Used To Spell 'Trump'". The Daily Caller. Retrieved 14 June 2016.