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Minority Rights Coalition encourages political involvement

Speakers, discourse highlight “Get Out the Minority Vote”

Ahead of the upcoming Nov. 8 elections, The Minority Rights Coalition held an event titled “Get Out the Minority Vote: Political Involvement in 2016” Thursday evening.

The event was cosponsored by UVAVotes, University Democrats, College Republicans and Sustained Dialogue. It was held in Newcomb Ballroom and approximately 30 students were in attendance.

“I’m very happy with this turnout, especially with all of the things going on this week,” Araba Dennis, MRC vice president of advocacy and third-year College student, said, referring to other events that were occurring at the same time such as the Julian Bond Symposium.

MRC Chair Attiya Latif, a third-year College student, said MRC wanted to hold this event to “address the current political situation through dialogue,” iterating that this conversation would help to engage different points of views and demonstrate ways in which minority students can become involved in the political system.

“Recent events have been disheartening, and it is important to engage in a discussion of how minority students are affected by this election and how we can continue to make our voices heard at a civic level,” Latif said.

The event began with two student speakers discussing their experiences with minority political activism and emphasizing the importance of voting.

“At first we wanted faculty [to speak], but then we thought it’d be more effective to have students,” Dennis said, adding that the faculty they had originally asked to speak declined the invitation. “I think that was kind of a blessing because then we were able to hear from the student experience of being politically engaged.”

The first student speaker was fourth-year Batten student Emmanuel Vega. This past summer, Vega interned with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and referenced moments from that experience in his speech.

“I really noticed how small the presence of minorities are in the political system and how small the minority voice is in Congress,” Vega said. “There aren’t enough Congress members that care about the issues of minorities.”

Vega added that although voters may not like Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, the presidential election is not the only one occurring on Election Day. He encouraged students to vote for state and local representatives, who “affect us more directly.”

“I am not voting just for myself, but I’m voting to fight against perpetration against minorities,” Vega said. “I’m fighting to protect my family members, my friends. I’m fighting to show that the minority voice in the United States matters.”

During her speech, second-year College student Rawda Fawaz described an experience with voter apathy after she spoke at a mosque and encouraged attendees to vote. She said an Arabic woman told her afterwards, “My dear, we are nothing here.”

“She told me, ‘Be a good girl,’” Fawaz said. “‘Go be a doctor. Be smart and successful so that Trump can’t deport you.’ Minorities truly believe their votes don’t matter.”

After Fawaz spoke, the discussion portion of the event began to allow attendees to discuss their opinions on the election and politics in the United States with others who didn’t necessarily share their views.

“You can’t truly believe in something until you’ve been challenged about it,” Dennis said. “We think that it’s good to have a space that’s brave and safe at the same time, where people can express their views but be challenged about them as well.”

Each table discussion was moderated by a Sustained Dialogue member using a mechanism called “Talk, Text, Vote.” The moderators were texted an initial question and replied with a response after the group reached a consensus on the answer. The moderators were texted a new question based on the previous answer.

Some of the questions that attendees considered were how likely they were to vote in the election, what they believed were the most important issues affecting minorities and what makes them optimistic about the country’s future.

Latif said she hoped attendees would leave the event with a more optimistic outlook on political engagement.

“We want minority students to come away from this event empowered and hopeful rather than jaded about the current electoral process,” Latif said. “There is always place for change.”

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