How Mark Robinson crashed a student candidate forum

It should have been simple.

In the run-up to Election Day, the NC A&T University chapters of the NAACP and Kappa Alpha Psi Inc. planned. a candidate forum on campus on October 9. They had hoped to identify candidates for both governor and state superintendent of public administration. instruction.

Mo Green and Michele Morrow, the Democratic and Republican candidates for superintendent, respectively, confirmed they would attend. Attorney General Josh Stein, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, had a conflicted event but suggested having a student serve as a surrogate for the campaign.

The groups heard nothing from Lt. Gov. Mark Robinsonwho trailed Stein in the polls in early October and saw his campaign fall apart after reports of his years visiting porn shops in Greensboro and make obscene and racist comments on a porn website.

Under the circumstances, student organizers said, they felt it was best to highlight only Green and Morrow. They advertised them on event posters and social media and planned accordingly.

Then they got a call the morning of the event. Mark Robinson’s campaign suddenly said he was coming.

“This is all at 10 in the morning,” said student Emily Wilson, president of the campus NAACP chapter. “This is the day of the event.”

“Whether you want him there or not.”

The prospect of Robinson suddenly dropping by threatened to throw a carefully planned event into chaos and spurred organizers into action.

Can they accommodate an unplanned arrival of a Lt. Governor, especially one as controversial as Robinson, with so little notice? Weren’t there any concerns about parking and safety? Should they expect protests? A&T is the largest HBCU in the country. Robinson had spent years posting offensive comments online about the black community, the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. and even the A&T Four – the students who sparked the sit-in movement for desegregation.

Student organizers contacted their campus advisor and state and national chapter leadership for guidance. What they got was a wave of conflicting opinions.

Some suggested canceling the event altogether rather than hosting Robinson without Stein, who was under the impression his GOP opponent was not in attendance. It didn’t seem fair to have a surrogate student confront Robinson, whose history of controversial and inflammatory statements could be met with hostility that could derail the entire event.

“Mark Robinson, they felt, came into our event and forced us, so it was kind of unfair,” said Quentin Clarke, vice president of the NAACP chapter.

Others said they had to keep going, seize the moment and the spotlight to engage students and show what their organizations could do even under these adverse circumstances.

Ultimately, student organizers decided not to invite Robinson. It was just not noticed enough that he planned to come alone on the day of the event. He could send a surrogate, as Stein planned to do, they told the campaign. That seemed to resolve the issue.

Then, at 4:30 p.m., during the social hour before the 6 p.m. event, Clarke received another call.

“Mark Robinson’s wife is calling me,” Clarke said. “His wife and the campaign manager are on the phone with me and they’re just leaving. They say, ‘We’re going to call your Kappa nationals, we’re going to call your NAACP nationals, call your chancellor’s office. Mark Robinson will be there whether you want him there or not. ”

The Meeting contacted the Robinson campaign for comment on the details of this conversation. They didn’t respond.

Feeling backed into a corner, student organizers began making plans for Robinson’s inevitable arrival.

“We thought it was best for the organizations we’re a part of to have him on stage, rather than him just showing up and telling him he couldn’t be on stage,” Clarke said. “Because he’s going to cause a whole mess and make national news, making our organizations look bad.”

Clarke grabbed some paper and rewrote the evening’s script, coming up with new questions for the gubernatorial candidate. Others found more seats and reconfigured the staging in the campus’s Harrison Auditorium. Everyone involved worked frantically to save the event, even as the crowd began lining up.

Stein’s campaign was still under the impression that Robinson wouldn’t come and that they wouldn’t need a surrogate. The students were concerned that the event would appear unbalanced with two Republicans – Morrow and Robinson – and only one Democrat, Green. Then, about 15 minutes before the event was to start, State Senator Gladys Robinson (D-Guilford) arrived. She had talked to Stein about what was going on, she said, and was willing to act as his surrogate for the event.

“I think the lieutenant governor did this at the last minute because he thought he could come to A&T and Josh wouldn’t be here,” she said in an interview after the event. “And it would seem like he wasn’t interested in being here. That wasn’t what happened. They felt that the students had decided to have only candidates for superintendent, and they stood by that decision. We weren’t going to let him come in and make it look like anything else.”

Mark Robinson arrived last. While the other guests were dressed professionally, the students said, Robinson arrived in sneakers, jeans, a T-shirt and a windbreaker. They wondered if he had brought a change of clothes. He didn’t have that.

“This is all at 10:00 in the morning. This is the day of the event.”

Emily Wilson, president of the campus NAACP chapter

At A&T, students are encouraged to do all things “Aggie Pride,” including projecting a professional image that reflects positively on their university and community. The students and their advisors said Robinson’s dress and behavior seemed disrespectful to the institution. Even the way he sat on stage throughout the forum seemed off.

“Sitting back, not even sitting up professionally,” said Wilson, the chapter president.

“It was very disturbing and telling,” she said.

Clarke, who also co-moderated the event, said he thought about the incongruity of the lieutenant governor strolling in his jeans and sneakers and the dignity of the A&T Four, depicted in a large statue across from Harrison Auditorium.

“There’s no reason why he should have come in here at ease,” Clarke said. “And Mark Robinson, a self-proclaimed black Nazi… he shouldn’t feel comfortable at this school.”

When the event finally started, the students did their best to keep their cool under the pressure and move along with the events. They were disappointed to see the venue half-filled and thought about the crowd they could have drawn if Robinson had let them know he planned to come even days earlier.

Laughter, boos and denials

Robinson has spent much of his campaign for governor speaking to friendly crowds at conservative political events and churches. The A&T crowd was something else.

Students asked pointed questions about his history of scandalous social posts and reports of his sexually and politically shocking statement on the site Nude Africa, which was spoofed in a sketch on Saturday evening live.

Robinson strongly denied the details of any reports and said he would file a lawsuit over it.

“Look, I haven’t been shy about what I’ve said and I’ve taken responsibility for what I’ve said and stood up for what I’ve said,” Robinson said. “But I don’t want to be accused of things I didn’t say.”

Robinson and Morrow both received murmurs, boos and laughter after many of their responses.

‘There’s no reason why he should have come in here at ease. And Mark Robinson, a self-described black Nazi… he should not feel comfortable at this school.”

Quentin Clarke, vice president of the NAACP chapter

As Gladys Robinson had predicted, the lieutenant governor tried to insult Stein for not coming to an event that he himself only managed to attend at the last minute.

“Political people will tell you not to go to these types of events because it might not be a ‘friendly crowd,’” Robinson said. “I’m not falling for that.”

“Why shouldn’t I come and listen to your concerns?” Robinson said. “Why shouldn’t I come in here and let you look at me?” If I become governor, there will be no surrogates.”

After the event, Green and Gladys Robinson stayed to take photos with the students and answer their questions one by one. Morrow and the lieutenant governor quickly left before they could be asked anything further.

Organizers said the reception Robinson received from the students was not unexpected. They were also not surprised when his campaign contacted them after the event to say he was upset by the event and that they should “expect repercussions regardless of the outcome of the election.”

Leadership under pressure

Students who attended said they were not shocked by anything Robinson had to say.

“I was just surprised that he showed up and was in front of a crowd of HBCU students,” said Foster Vestal III, a sophomore biology major. “I think it’s disgusting that he could have our first black lieutenant governor, maybe our first black governor. I think he is a disgusting individual, that he has no integrity, and that he is a puppet.”

Student organizers said they were proud of the way they handled the rollercoaster of the event, even despite the suggestions of those who suggested canceling or postponing the event.

“A lot of people would have succumbed to that pressure,” Wilson said.

There’s a lot of talk about “performative activism” on college campuses, Wilson said, including A&T. By not backing out of their planned event and by the navigational forces that pushed them throughout that hectic day, they demonstrated the true spirit of the NAACP, Kappa Alpha Psi and A&T.

“Our ability to change under these circumstances shows who we are as leaders,” Wilson said.

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Joe Killian does That of the Assembly Greensboro Editor. He came from us NC Newsline, where he was a senior investigative journalist.

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