The vice president of student government at Clemson University faces an impeachment trial after refusing to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance — and the black student claims the effort to push him out of office is racially motivated.
Junior Jaren Stewart was among about a dozen students who sat during the pledge at a student senate meeting at the university Sept. 25. He later told the Anderson Independent Mail that he and the other students were protesting racial injustice at the 18,000-student public university in South Carolina and across the country.
One week later, a photo of a Clemson University incident report dated in April was posted online — saying Stewart, while working as a resident assistant, would “take food, cleaning supplies and their vacuum” whether or not anyone was inside the room.
Miller Hoffman, a student senator at the university who is white, later cited the leaked document as the basis for the resolution to impeach Stewart — even though the issue had already been resolved.
Hoffman and other student senators at the college voted 40-18 on Oct. 23 in favor of holding an impeachment trial to determine whether Stewart will be removed as vice president.
“This had come right after I had sat for the pledge,” Stewart told the Anderson Independent Mail. “They’ve already made up their minds because of this trope of the villainous African-American male. Ultimately, this stems from implicit bias.”
Stewart declined to comment on accusations that he was fired from a role as a resident assistant after being charged with trespassing and unlawful entry, as well as receiving a no-contact order in the case. Stewart, who is no longer an RA at Clemson, said the matter had been “completely resolved” with him being suspended from his position for eight days last year.
“If any of the comments made were actually founded, I wouldn’t be the vice president,” Stewart told the newspaper. “I would be removed from office.”
A spokesman at the university declined to comment on the report, citing privacy concerns.
Hoffman maintained that he introduced the resolution to impeach Stewart solely due to the incident report and not because of race or Stewart’s decision to protest during the Pledge of Allegiance.
“I cannot stress enough how the situation has absolutely nothing to do with the flag protests or contain any racial motivation at all,” Hoffman said on Oct. 23, according to the Anderson Independent Mail. “Such a narrative is without evidence and completely untrue.”
Monday’s impeachment trial will be held at 7 p.m. during a closed-door executive session, according to The Tiger, Clemson’s student-run newspaper.
Stewart said he was unsure what to expect.
“This is social lynching, in a way,” Stewart told the Anderson Independent Mail. “There’s a deeper systemic issue in which people are choosing what they want to hear, choosing what they want to believe exists and that’s why sitting for the pledge was so important.”