If you have been online this past week, you’ve probably seen a remixed song of former President Donald Trump’s statement of “they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats” from the last presidential debate. This was in response to a question about immigration in the United States, originally posed to Vice President Kamala Harris. If somehow you missed it, Trump claimed, rather falsely, that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating household pets—a claim he doubled down on when the moderators of the debate noted its fake nature.

This quickly became an online joke. Many influencers took to making videos of them jokingly placing their beloved pet in a pot or pretending to eat them with a caption of something along the lines of “POV: you live in Springfield, OH.” This trend follows the memeification of the state of Ohio, as it became a term to describe something weird and abnormal as compared to the rest of the world.

While we can all joke about the absurdity of Trump’s statement, sometimes we forget that such claims made by people with authority, such as a presidential candidate, can have a real impact on people’s lives.

Wittenberg University, a private university in Springfield, not only had to switch to remote classes for a week but also canceled all athletic events. This actually affected our volleyball team, as they were supposed to play against the Wittenberg Tigers this past weekend. Wittenberg’s decision came about after a shooting threat, which was then followed by a bomb threat. Both of the threats, according to Axios and the Springfield News-Sun, explicitly targeted Haitian students at the school. A similar situation occurred at Clark State College, a public community college, which also switched to remote learning. By the end of the week, Wittenberg University was back to in-person classes but with heavier security measures.

The words of our politicians, even if they later acknowledge that they are untrue, clearly have an impact on everyday life. For the city of Springfield, the consequences of the former president’s words ranged from harboring life-threatening potential to interfering with students’ education. Even though most of Case Western Reserve University’s students come from out of state, these threats hit extremely close to home for us. It’s easy to imagine that Springfield is some remote, almost fictional place, when in reality it is only a three-hour drive away. The threats against Wittenberg and Clark State were not unique, as the city has seen over 30 bomb threats in the past few weeks. The Haitian community, in particular, has seen an increase in racial discrimination, becoming the target of these violent threats. Many members of the Haitian community have spoken out about their fears for their children whom Trump’s believers have not spared with their threats.

The juxtaposition of the humorous social media trend and the reality of the Haitian community grappling with threats of violence serve as a reminder to be cautious of the media we consume and share—that which may seem like a meaningless joke can have truly harmful effects.