Students discussed how racism has set the tone for the next presidential election Tuesday.
UF’s Hispanic-Latino Affairs held Race to the Bottom, an impartial discussion on racism and stereotypes. The student organization invited a member from both the UF College Democrats and UF College Republicans to talk about the roles racism and stereotypes play in the 2016 presidential election.
With about a dozen students present, they took questions from HLA and audience members about the candidates, campaign methods and their campaign platforms.
Amy Mendez, who helped organize the event, said it aimed to help the UF community tune into the elections on an impartial platform.
“As a minority community at UF, we just felt like it was important,” the 20-year-old UF finance sophomore said.
During the talk, HLA showed videos of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz. After the videos, the audience and the panelists engaged in a Q&A discussion.
Richard El-Rassy, the president of UF College Republicans, acknowledged the racial tension in politics, but he said the issue comes from both parties.
“It’s not the political party itself that is using racial stereotypes, it’s members of the political party,” he said.
Natalia Perez Santos, the director of outreach for UF College Democrats, said she hopes to see political parties meet the needs of citizens.
“As we continue to move forward, we have to push our parties to do better,” the 20-year-old UF political science and history junior said.
Fahad Khan said he decided to attend the event after seeing it on Facebook. He said the panelists’ collected demeanors set the tone for a civil atmosphere.
“I think that we got to see different perspectives on the issues,” the 20-year-old UF political science and history senior said. “Having these discussions, I think, is crucial to any democracy.”
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