Before we talk about this step, we’re going to cut right to the chase: We built a kindness “wall” around Trump Tower in NYC this morning. Us, along with about 100 amazing volunteers, stood out front for 3 hours with 40"x60" boards that spelled out a very important message. Make sure to check out the behind-the-scenes video in Part 3.

Excluding people breeds discrimination, hate, and sometimes, terrorism. History tells us that building walls, both physically (like Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border) and metaphorically (like banning all Muslims from the U.S.), will only cause more problems. We simply cannot shut out people based on religion, ethnicity, race, gender, or sex. Instead of building walls and creating fear, we need to build more kindness, love and acceptance in our country.

There are countless threats facing our world: economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal, and technological. Here in America, racial discrimination is still very much alive, with cops killing unarmed black men at an alarming rate, not to mention mass shootings seemingly every week, ISIS attacks, a large income gap, and our warmest year on record. 

And then, of course, there’s Donald Trump.

By now, everyone has an opinion on Donald Trump. He is one of the most polarizing figures we’ve seen in a long time. Donald Trump is a lot of things to a lot of people, good or bad, but it’s fair to say one thing for sure in relation to this project: he’s not very kind. Outside of policy issues, if there is one example that a president should uphold for the American people, for our children, it’s a person who is strong-willed, well-tempered, and respectful. Trump claims he is a “unifier,” while he only continues to divide this country through bullying, misogyny, and greed.

We obviously cannot address Trump’s entire history of hatred in a single blog post, nor do we label ourselves as political experts, but we would be remiss if we didn’t use our voice to say something we cared very deeply about. As the anti-Trump sentiment is growing more and more among Republicans and Democrats alike, we are witnessing something very frightening — not only for political discourse, but for America. The recent outbursts at his rallies in Chicago and Ohio feel like the beginning of a country that will be in a civil war if this man is elected. Senator Marco Rubio recently told Jake Tapper that he is concerned that someone might lose their life when all is said and done, and we feel the same way. By excluding and dividing, Trump is applauding violence, playing off the fear of the disenfranchised, and feeding into a narrative of anger and frustration. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last nine months, you know some of the jaw-dropping things that have come out of Donald Trump’s mouth. Here’s the quick rundown of what he has said and done:

He wants to ban Muslims from our country. He said that all of Islam hate Americans. He calls Mexican immigrants rapists. He would not condemn the KKK and David Duke when asked several times. He retweets Mussolini quotes. He retweets bogus stats that claim most white people are killed by black people. He encourages violence at his rallies. He is offering to pay the legal fees for those who commit violence at his rallies toward protesters. He mocked a disabled man. He called Ted Cruz a ”pussy.” He calls a war hero like John McCain a war hero only because he was captured. He has repeatedly made comments on women for their appearance, calling them names such as ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs,’ and ‘disgusting animals.’ Examples of his blatant lack of kindness go on and on — and the most astonishing part is that the media feeds off of all of this, and all of these acts of insult have actually likely propelled him to his current standing.

Frankly, it’s becoming downright scary to see this kind of rhetoric spewed on a daily basis on his campaign trail, rallies, and debates. We cannot pretend that these words won’t have consequences. A Presidential candidate simply can’t go around saying anything he wants. This will only promote more hate and more terrorism. So, with all of this in mind, we’ve collected some of his incredibly rude and vulgar insults he's been recorded saying and gathered them on a website we’ve created called Trumpsults.

Bottom line: Trump is sexist, a racist and a bigot. This isn’t news. However, this is bigger than just Trump. This is about the DNA of our country. This is about the systematic racism and sexism that still exists every day. This is about Trump preying on the fears of the “Other.” And all of these visceral feelings are bubbling to the top as his supporters show us on a daily basis. Now more than ever, with the election quickly approaching, we need to speak up against his inexcusable behavior. The protestors who disrupted his rally in Chicago last week were sending a signal that his message will not be tolerated in diverse communities like Chicago. We need to continue to use our voices on social media, and in peaceful, non-violent ways, to remind the world that our country is about inclusion, and that we do not share Trump’s intolerance and hatred. America is NOT one nationality, one race, or one religion. America is a diverse mix of backgrounds, religions, races, sexual orientations, and ethnicities. That’s what makes our country great.

Kindness is an innate quality that we can all possess as human beings. We need a leader who will be an example of this trait for us and our children. Let’s stand up to this intolerance. Let’s not let fear overcome our humanity. Let’s not let walls tear us down. As political activist and hip hop artist Killer Mike so eloquently said on Stephen Colbert, this opportunity is not going to come again. It's now or never.

Step 12 began last month when we decided to involve our graphic design students at the School of The Visual Arts. We gave our class an assignment to pick a global issue that deals with relevant topics—such as racial or gender inequalities, ethnic identity, gun violence, or Donald Trump—and to think about unique ideas to bring these topics to life using a larger platform that could stir up conversation. One student, Isabelle Griffioen, came up with the idea of building a brick wall around Chipotle as a response to Donald Trump’s divisive plan of building a wall along the U.S.–Mexico border to keep out illegal immigrants. While we didn’t feel that was an appropriate solution, we did however feel it could be very strong to build a “wall” of signs around the Trump Tower that spelled out a positive and powerful message. Isabelle decided not to explore the idea we offered in class, but we felt passionate enough about the idea to explore and move forward with it ourselves. We want to thank her for inspiring this idea. 

Over the the last few weeks, we spent countless hours designing and planning this entire event along with the websites. Huge thanks to Molly Brunk, and Daniel Forero for all your work helping us make this come to life. Big thank you to our amazing web developer, Gisle Nes, who helped create the websites, and thank you to Eric Jacobsen for the Vote site. Thank you to Kelly Silva, Lisa Chi, Alyssa Coscarelli, Ray Javden, Chloe Seroussi and Leah Schmidt. Finally, our deepest gratitude goes to the group of amazing volunteers who woke up super early to help hold these signs in front of Trump Tower for three hours. We are forever thankful to all of you. We're going to do more of these protests soon, so if anyone is interested in helping please email us at [email protected]. Lastly, thanks to all of you who followed along in this journey! 

Photos by Ramon Trotman, Jason Bergman and Daniel Forero.

Some anti-Trump voters have gone so far to say that they’ll leave the country if he becomes President. To make light of this potential (horrible and scary) situation, we created a fun website where people can vote on what they’ll do if Trump wins, called If Trump Wins. We’re interested to see what you’ll vote for.