Honking for Trump or Hillary
The fearless group of students pose while carry out their candidate endorsement experiment. | PC: Zach Morrison
What happens when you hold up a sign that says “Honk for Trump” on the corner of 48th and O St? Senior internaitonal rescue and relief major
Gabby Vizcarra wasn’t sure, so when Professor Chris Blake tasked her public speaking class with the challenge of experiencing a different culture, she jumped at the opportunity.
When I inquired why she wanted to do this social experiment, Vizcarra’s answer was straightforward, “I thought it would be rather funny to do it, but also interesting to see how people in the Midwest would react to Trump signs.”
After chapel on Oct. 11, two days after the second presidential debate, I joined Vizcarra and two other friends at the intersection. We decided to count honks, obscenities and thumb-downs. We stood with the Trump sign for 50 minutes, from 11:50 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. In that time frame we received 208 honks, 35 vulgar insults and 25 thumb-downs (this category also included “the bird”).
The most memorable occurrence was having a lady scream at us from her car for a solid minute. Her language was colorful; I obviously won’t be providing a quote.
By the end, we had had so much fun we decided to return in a week with a “Honk 4 Hillary” sign. That time, we received 178 honks, 20 vulgar insults and 36 thumb-downs. Our favorite moment was when a car drove by and one of the passengers yelled “Hillary for prison!”
When asked about her experience, Vizcarra summed it up quite well. “Trump received more reactions than Hillary,” she commented. “I also found that Trump-haters would insult us personally, whereas Hillary-haters would insult her rather than us. I found that extremely interesting.”
Autumn Mott is a sophomore studying communication