by WorldTribune Staff, August 19, 2016
Latino students with conservative leanings are finding life difficult on the allegedly “liberal” bastions that are American college campuses.
They have been “cast as traitors” and in some instances threatened for daring to deviate from leftist position deemed socially acceptable.
George Washington University student Diego Rebollar told The College Fix that being a conservative student on campus is difficult enough, but being a conservative student of color is much worse.
“Some of the worst attacks from the Left are reserved for minorities who dare to be conservative,” Rebollar said, adding a pro-life display he erected at his high school also prompted verbal attacks, even calls for him to commit suicide.
“We are cast as traitors for not falling for liberal policies like most minorities unfortunately do.”
Rebollar said he was banished from an online “students of color” support group for asking whether white students would be called racist if they created a similar group.
For his post, Rebollar was called a “white Latino” and “ignorant.”
“I was promptly kicked out of the ‘Students of Color’ group me, despite being a Mexican immigrant, for the grave sin of challenging liberal orthodoxy on the issue of race,” he said. “Students in the group chat preceded to attack me for my conservative views, a fact I would later discover when I was re-added to the chat. All this from a group that proudly described itself as ‘inclusive’ and ‘tolerant.’ ”
Ana Martinez-Perez, a sophomore at UCLA sophomore, said she has been repeatedly blocked from Facebook groups that connect and aid students.
According to The College Fix: “Martinez-Perez wrote an online opinion column titled ‘Dear Liberals, Let Us Watch the Olympics in Peace’ expressing her view that she did not believe Olympic medalist Michael Phelps should have to give up his honor of serving as America’s flag-bearer at the Olympics opening ceremony to an an African-American, hijab-wearing Muslim female athlete, which several liberal groups had advocated for.”
After posting her column, one Facebook user called her a “c*nt” and other called her a “b*tch.”
Martinez-Perez, a member of Young Americans for Freedom, said her effort to host Ben Shapiro on campus in February “caused a near riot” at the school.
“At times I feel scared to tell people I am a conservative,” Martinez-Perez said. “You feel almost bound to not voice your opinion because you fear for your well-being.”
In an anonymous opinion piece he wrote for the Stanford Review identifying himself as a “low-income student of color,” Stanford University student Miguel Samano defended his effort to require students to take Western Civilization classes to graduate.
When he was suspected of being the author, Samano was kicked out of an “online chat room consisting of student peer leaders within the Stanford First-Generation Low Income Partnership,” according to The College Fix. Samano subsequently revealed his identity.