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Speaker 0 00:00:00 Walking into Kahn auditorium, the line is around the corner. There's a concentration of conversations. As students move inches at a time towards the entrance, moving through the large doors of con people are checking. Tickets and rows are steadily being filled more and more students are filing in until the a thousand seat auditorium is packed 10 or so minutes go by the lights dimmed down for some people. This moment is an opportunity to see a prominent Asian American politician speak on campus. Others question. If yang was the right choice to bring to Northwestern's campus with all sides seated, the event begins On Monday, Northwestern college Democrats hosted politician, entrepreneur, and former presidential candidate. Andrew Yang gang, who recently announced he is no longer a Democrat and has formed his own forward party. Spoke with history, professor Michael Allen about universal basic income and the duopoly of us politics.
Speaker 1 00:01:05 Uh, when you ask about like the stakes of our generation, the biggest mistake our generation has made, in my opinion, Michael, is that the evening into the generations ahead of us
Speaker 0 00:01:14 Upon entering yang runs through the Isles, taking selfies with students and shaking hands, but not everyone was willing to clap for him. 62 students stood up dressed in all black and carrying the Palestinian flag. They protested completely silently. They voiced their opinions by placing their flags towards the egg at the podium, marching next to the stage, down the aisle, and then walking out second year SSP student Armana Johnny was in the audience of the event.
Speaker 2 00:01:48 It was as respectful as possible, no one chance or anything. It was completely silent. They didn't have to like shout at him, show any sort of like anger that could be used against them. Later on
Speaker 0 00:02:01 The silent walkout was organized by students for justice in Palestine, SJP. The group released a statement shortly after the event stating quote, we walked out because Andrew Yang's past remarks, actively disregarded his real discriminated oppression of Palestinians. During may. Additionally, we reject his pro-police stance that threatens black and brown lives and quote,
Speaker 2 00:02:25 His attitude changed when it happened. He stops looking at like trying to make eye contact with audience members. It was like he was doing the thing that like middle schoolers and high schoolers always do where they look at the back wall. And, um, he was trying to avoid giving them any attention. He was also like smiling during his whole speech. And then as soon as those people got up, his bond face became very blank.
Speaker 0 00:02:48 As the walkout crowd exits yang sits down with moderator Michael Allen for a Q and a session during the session, yang explains to Alan and the audience, how he believes is being held back by its older generations and how youngest generations in the United States should aim to create change.
Speaker 1 00:03:07 So it's like our government is on a giant tape delay like by 30 years or so. Uh, and I'm going to suggest that we actually don't have time for a 30 year tape delay, uh, and for your generation, you're gonna look up and you're very, very frustrated by it. And, and I agree with you.
Speaker 0 00:03:24 One of the highlights of Yang's responses were the jokes he interspersed between his more serious political commentary.
Speaker 1 00:03:30 I'm the only candidate in the history of us politics who won the Iowa straw youth poll, who did not actually win the Iowa caucus. Uh, so if they just cut the voting off at around age 20, I would be the president of the United States,
Speaker 0 00:03:49 But after a few back and forth between Ellen and yang, as the crowd prepared to clap, once again, a student stood up, they addressed yang directly.
Speaker 0 00:04:12 The crowd voice, their disapproval, but yang was quick to respond,
Speaker 1 00:04:17 Respect or listen. I'm very happy to talk to you individually after the event. Again, very happy to talk to you individually.
Speaker 0 00:04:25 This was not the only student who chose to voice their disagreements directly. Several minutes after one student spoke out about the N YPD yang began to tackle the issue of Asian-American violence in the United States,
Speaker 1 00:04:38 Uh, the culture and the violence. It's tough. I'm going to say something that might be a little tough, but I think a lot of the violence I've seen in real life on like elderly, Asian, American women, like my, you know, like literally my neighborhood, the people that are perpetrating that violence are not on social media. A lot of them are just disturbed, mentally ill and struggling themselves. Like we need to bring them to environments where they can actually get the kind of support and help that they need as opposed to being on the street and Asian Americans get victimized often just because they're more vulnerable, like softer targets. But the people that are perpetrating the violence often are just, you know, folks that have needed help and haven't gone, then
Speaker 0 00:05:23 This happened,
Speaker 4 00:05:25 Are you kidding me? What kind of answer is that person who lives in New York? And I, I really don't understand why you're like kind of defending or like limiting the, the actual severity of this issue and saying that the perpetrators are mentally ill and that's an excuse. It is not as an Asian-American woman and like left leaning person. I'm so disappointed in this entire
Speaker 0 00:06:00 Promptly, after the student walked away from their seat and exited the auditorium, the QA continued, but many students were left thinking about the opinions of both the centers, as well as the walkout by SJP. Johnny took to Instagram to explain how he believed that political discourse means accepting dissenting opinions and not allowing politics to be viewed in a vacuum.
Speaker 2 00:06:24 I was just voicing how surprised I was when like, I guess my biggest point was yang was talking about how in a two party system, everyone, he blames the two parties in some prisons, but like also she's like he was criticizing Republican culture for blindly following Trump and what Trump stands for. And it's like, as soon as you back away from him, you're screwed. And then we're in this auditorium where we aren't allowing any sort of dissenting opinions. And that's what we're out here for criticizing the others for. If we want to talk about being like left versus right,
Speaker 0 00:06:56 Another Northwestern second year student, Chloe Porter posted a long Twitter thread after the event criticizing the students who chose to dismiss the two people who spoke out Porter tweeted, quote, I'm not mad that college gems brought enter yang. I'm mad that the gang gang believes this man is above critique and chooses to shoot down women and people of color instead of listening. And to quote in an interview with Northwestern news network yang was asked for a response regarding the students who chose to speak out at the event. Yang's response was that he preferred to focus on the contents of the moderated conversation and you college Democrats also released a statement following the event, saying, quote, we want to thank all those who claim their tickets and helped fill con auditorium tonight. And in particular, want to stress our appreciation and respect for those who made their perspectives known by walking out of tonight's event protest.
Speaker 0 00:07:48 Additionally, we want to stress that we have no platform or no official stance as an organization on any political issue. And to quote, as the event came to a close and people started filing out of con auditorium, the anonymous social media platform, Yik yak had several people making jokes about whether or not yang was the one who stole the 4,500 COVID deaths. But also there were other stating that they believed Northwestern event. Hosting gang as a guest was the wrong place to make a political statement in the wake of the walkout and the individual dissenters on Monday, you're left wondering when and where is the right time and place to voice dissenting opinions. According to a Johnny, this Sprite time in place may not exist.
Speaker 2 00:08:36 When is the appropriate time we S we brought a politician to this campus. It is not our job to voice our political concerns about what he stands for. He is a well-known person and his being well-known gives him power, but nothing's going to change with the power that he has unless people can call him out and hold them accountable for what he says and does
Speaker 0 00:08:58 For WMUR news. I'm Ali Bianco.
