Protesters have taken to streets across the country to express their displeasure with President-elect Donald Trump.
That includes some who gathered to speak out and march in Metro Detroit last night.
In Royal Oak, the group gathered outside Oakland Community College was fairly small, but they did draw lots of supportive honks.
Some shared their anger over Trump’s election—and their determination to resist his policies.
Others spoke about fear of harassment and physical attacks against Muslims, immigrants and other targets of Trump’s rhetoric.
Nabintou Doumbia is a student at Wayne State University, and a Muslim. She says her parents are immigrants, and she now fears they may face deportation.
But Doumbia is worried for future generations, too.
“I’m here because I will not raise a daughter under a man who is a rapist,” she said. “And I’m here because I’ll never teach my children with history books that has a Fascist next to the first African American president.”
A number of the protesters said they were disturbed by a recent incident at Royal Oak Middle School.
A viral video swept the internet over the past several days, appearing to show students there chanting “build the wall,” apparently in reference to Donald Trump’s campaign promise.
Jody Ellison says she always believed her country celebrated civil rights, and that Royal Oak was a progressive community in that tradition.
“The chance of all of those being taken away in my lifetime--so the children that I brought in thinking I was bringing them a better world, I was actually giving them a worse, more repressive world--that’s not acceptable to me,” Ellison said.
Ellison noted that the school has launched an ongoing response to the incident.
But, “stuff that comes from home filters in,” she said. “It’s still not acceptable.”
However, at least one person at the protest said they believed the video was widely misinterpreted, and that the chant was meant to mock Trump.
Anti-Trump protesters also marched through the streets of midtown Detroit Friday.
The Michigan State Police had taken note of both protests, and warned that “While we respect the First Amendment rights of all, please understand that any attempts to block any freeway will result in arrest.”
The MSP later tweeted out thanks to protesters, noting that both events were “small and peaceful.”
