Now, Johari Osayi Idusuyi has come forward to discuss her experience and, despite the fact that the media outlets have suggested that she was there to troll the presidential candidate, she says that’s not what she was there to do.
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Idusuyi, who attends nearby Lincoln Land Community College, got tickets to see Trump from a friend whose family backed out at the last minute.
That’s why she brought a book.
So she pulled out her copy of Claudia Rankine’s award-winning book of poetry, Citizen – which she claimed she was already reading at the time – and ignored the rest of the speech. If that wasn’t enough, then take comfort in knowing that Idusuyi also occupied her time texting and talking to her neighbor during the rally.
And read she did!
“I think we were chosen for obvious reasons”, Idusuyi told the Jezebel blog.
“Then I was like, I’m in the middle, I’m on camera”, she said, “so why not use the opportunity to promote a great book?”
On top of that, she was disgusted with how a group of protesters were treated at the rally.
“This is a young woman, she’s petite, she’s 16-years-old, and she’s already being escorted out, why feel the need to disrespect her like that and treat her like that”, she said. “I thought, ‘Oh, you’re really not empathetic at all.’ That’s when the shift happened”. Clearly she found more to support in Rankine’s Citizen.
Idusuyi immediately became turned off when she saw the bullying tactics Trump and his supporters directed at the few protestors in attendance, booing and heckling, with one person snatching an Obama hat off a female protestor’s head as she tried to leave.
She spoke about her interaction with the couple behind her which certainly didn’t help her opinion of Trump and his supporters.
The two, who appeared to be a couple, began to give angry glares in Idusuyi’s direction. However, they were soon approached by a man who asked if they wanted to sit in that area.
“Thank you to them”, Idusuyi said. “But I don’t think they have any right to tell me what to do”, she warns.
And he probably was kind of mad, but I don’t think he would have tapped me on the shoulder if it wasn’t for the woman. “You didn’t even stand for the Pledge of Allegiance”.
The ushers positioned her perfectly behind Trump, to add a splash of color to his backdrop.
Johari says she hopes all of this attention means more people will read a book that she thinks everyone can learn something from. “But to tell me what to do?” I didn’t hear but my friend told me the next day that she said, “I’m so glad you’re not my daughter”, or something along those lines. “Are you not listening?”
She ended up directly behind Trump as a bit of a fluke. Instead, she just read.
Idusuyi has been closely watching the protests at the University of Missouri and at Yale University.
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That seems unimaginable, especially after Trump called the protests “disgusting” earlier this week. “But right now, not a chance”.
