Edith Macias, an ethnic studies student at the University of California, Riverside, took protest to a fellow student wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat.
President Trump’s popular “Make America Great Again” hats promote “laws and legislation that literally kill and murder in the masses, people of color,” a California college student is heard saying in a bizarre viral video rant where she pleads to campus staff to ban the student from wearing the red cap.
**WARNING: Videos below contain explicit language**
Edith Macias posted a Facebook video Wednesday showing her snatching the hat off of Matthew Vitale’s head during a meeting of student organizations at University of California, Riverside. The ensuing footage Vitale films of Macias arguing with him and staff in the school’s student life office shows workers with stunned looks on their faces as the scene unfolds in front of them. The video has more than 2 million views.
“This is mine. You do not get to take other people’s property that is legally theirs in this county,” Vitale, a member of the school’s College Republicans club, sternly tells Macias.
“Man, f--- your laws,” Macias snaps back.
“I have a freedom of speech to wear this hat,” Vitale later says.
“Your f---ing freedom of speech is genocide, homeboy! Is that what you are trying to represent?” she replies.
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Vitale said in a video posted after the incident that he was attending an annual school-organized meeting where leaders of student groups listen to presentations about combating hazing and sexual harassment. A self-described Trump supporter, Vitale adds that he usually wears the “Make America America Great Again” on campus and sometimes gets looks from other students, but was startled when Macias, whom he says he never met, yanked off his hat and sprinted out of the classroom.
The calm and collected staff at the school’s student life offices managed to take the hat away from Macias and return it to Vitale, but not before Macias is caught on video protesting their actions.
“F--- your f—-ing freedom of speech, boy,” Macias says to Vitale. “Your freedom of speech is literally killing a lot of people out there. That’s what it is. Because you’re out there wearing hats like these that promote laws and legislations that literally kill and murder in the masses, people of color.”
Macias says at one point in the exchange that she would like to burn the hat. In another heated moment, Vitale tells Macias to leave the country if she doesn’t like it.
“What do you mean? I was born here….where the f—- am I gonna go?” Macias says.
“Go to Mexico, go wherever the hell you want,” Vitale responds.
“You don’t know s—- about me! What do you mean Mexico?” Macias fires back.
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A campus staff member then intervenes, trying to diffuse the situation and offering Macias a space where she can file her grievances to campus officials: “Let’s calm down a little bit, we can talk as a trio here."
The viral video ends after one of the employees gives the hat back to Vitale.
“Oh my God, you’re going to keep letting him wear it? That just shows how the f--- UCR is and the education system. It’s geared to benefit white people, white people, not me,” Macias says as she protests the move and accuses the staff of not being neutral.
“In the premises of the university I deal with microaggressions on the daily, as do other people of color and you have people out there wearing hats like those, y’all don’t say s—- about it,” she adds. “Make America Great Again? Really? Lynches, mass genocides, mass deportations. Constant killings, and y’all are just gonna shut the f—- up?”
“I don’t want to talk to none of y’all” Macias says as she's met at the door by men who appear to be campus police officers.
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