Free Speech for the Loudest!

Illegal immigration has been front and center this election cycle — hat tip to Donald Trump — and that is exactly why College Republicans at Central Washington University chose to discuss the issue at our last meeting.

Several communities surrounding the CWU campus in Ellensburg, Wash., have large Hispanic and migrant populations. Of these, many have grave human trafficking problems. We designed an attention-grabbing poster to get students interested in an open and thoughtful debate to attend.

Needless to say, the issue of illegal immigration hits home for many CWU students, and we expected a decent turnout at our discussion. What we didn’t expect was 70-plus students, professors and community members showing up in opposition.

The meeting was standing-room only. Students from several racial minority groups on campus made it a point for their clubs to attend the meeting in opposition. What was their main complaint? The posters.

We were informed that the term “illegal immigrants” should not be used, and any rebuttals from the College Republicans were invalid because of our “white privilege.”

While we intended to talk about immigration policy and sanctuary cities, students from other clubs boisterously attempted to direct the conversation in quite a different direction. They bogarted the conversation, taking 40 minutes of the hour-long meeting to complain about how offensive they found the posters.

We were informed that the term “illegal immigrants” should not be used, and any rebuttals from the College Republicans were invalid because of our “white privilege.”

Some students took to Facebook to continue their blown-out-of-proportion bloviating. One post personally attacked me for something I said at the meeting — that conservative Republicans have a hard time on campus. Apparently because I’m a “middle class, cis, white, privileged” individual — their words, not mine. By the way “cis” is shorthand for “cis-gendered” meaning I am a woman who identifies as such. That too can evidently carry privilege which prevents me from understanding what it feels like to be in the minority, according to my liberal classmates.

To them I say, try turning in a paper that voices your conservative point of view, sitting at the College Republican table at club fairs and being called names, or having posters you spent hours designing and hanging up around campus destroyed and mocked. No College Democrats’ posters would come under as much criticism as ours did. Nor would an angry mob show up at their meeting, control the conversation and destroy the open, thoughtful goal of the meeting.

To respond to my naysayers on Facebook: Being an “out” Republican on a college campus is extremely hard. And in many cases, these attacks come from those who claim to understand the plight of a minority.

When an overwhelming majority of people are not interested in having a genuine conversation with you, but rather want to crucify you for having the nerve to identify as a Republican, doesn’t that make me a minority, too?

Elizabeth Catterson is a senior at Central Washington University. This piece is part of a CampusZette series exploring the culture, oddities and experiences of students on college campuses through their eyes.