Dearest Michelle and Barack Obama,
I am a young person of color in a country that I have a great deal of respect for. I was fortunate enough to spend my childhood in a safe, fairly inclusive environment in one of this country’s most affluent soccer mom suburbs. At the time, I was naively frustrated to live in a community that didn’t celebrate my mixed heritage. I was a minority within the minority by being both black and white. Ha! Now I know how easy I had it back home.
Since turning eighteen, graduating high school, and attending college, I have seen, experienced, and recognized the racial, religious, and sexual turmoil that has surrounded me in my isolated existence for years before I was even born. I thank the 2008 election for opening my eyes to the shameful discrimination and hatred that has enveloped millions of American. I have made friends with undocumented students, people of color, Muslims, but beyond that, human beings with aspirations, hopes, and dreams. I feel very privileged to have been able to meet such an incredible melting pot of beautiful Americans.
It is my pleasure to endearingly refer to you two as FLOTUS and POTUS. You both have been the only White House residents in my youthful conscious awareness. I am very lucky and proud to have lived through the era of Michelle’s beefy arms, Barack’s honeysweet soulful singing voice, and the curly black fur of the Obama Portuguese Water Dogs.
Today, “a self-financed melting jack-o-lantern,” as articulately put by the great Trevor Noah, became the face of the greatest nation on the planet. A man who has never worked a day in his life has been sworn in to take on the most important, physically and psychologically taxing position this country has to offer. A grown-up baby with limited constraint in rhetoric is now at liberty to say what he pleases whether in a press conference or in tweets. Finally, a p****-grabbing maniac, with white supremacists, the KKK, and Russia’s Putin tugging on his puppet strings, is ready to make the United States a new land of “winning;” this is something he claims to be accustomed to, but his track record surely communicates the opposite. Nevertheless, as of twelve o’clock this afternoon, he is our 45th President of the United States of America, as much as it pains me to say. However, I have learned a great deal by watching the remarkable eloquence of Former President Barack Obama and his wonderful First Lady: “When they go low, we go high.” Therefore, over the next four years (or until he becomes impeached), I will endeavor to communicate my sentiments in a civilized and sophisticated manner.
January 20th hurt just like November 8th and July 21st and June 16th. I don’t feel like I’m at my best in this moment. I feel wronged by the people who should have my best interests at heart. I feel as though I’m on the wrong side of this chess match that is American politics; a game that is being played by two incompetent five-year-olds each telling themselves that “this is not a game.”
Throughout this tumultuous time, I have looked to two people for guidance, not including my parents, whose endless wisdom continues to surprise me every day. Michelle and Barack, I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank you both for all you have done for this country over the past eight years. You will forever grace this country’s history with your glorious colorful faces. When the darkness of this world dissolves, your names will claim monumental importance. I look forward to telling my children about the world you two helped create, the steps you took to get there, and the lives you continue to live after public service. God bless you both.
This country has always been great, but you two made it great again the moment Barack’s hand left the bible eight years ago. Let’s hope your precedent inspires more people of color, minority background, any sexual orientation, or religious inclinations to aspire to the greatest position in the nation; to bring us forwards into a new era of peace, love, and equity, not hatred, fear, and war.
Sincerely,
Alexandra Medeiros
