With the recent shootings, protests and assaults, I decided to take a small step back from the news and social media. The affairs of the presidential running candidates have been off my radar for a few weeks too, but I still stay informed of the drama vicariously through my friends on Facebook who “share” a fair share of details on their timelines about the two parties. Nothing in this political race really surprises me anymore, but what has really surprised me is the amount of interest shown in this race among folks younger than myself, and I’m talking about millennials that are not even old enough to vote! So you can imagine my amazement in that my initial time learning of Mrs. Trump’s-umm-sampled speech was from a group of twelve-year olds.

I had the privilege of working with several adolescents and teenagers over this summer, and on a wide array of things, from science projects to tutoring reading skills through rigorous card games. Though this isn’t a first for me as I’ve worked with teens before during my undergraduate years and the random unapologetic-nature of their conversations is of no surprise; kids tend to blatantly say how they feel about people based upon what they know and see and, while these observations are not always well-informed or intellectually rationalized, they reflect what they’ve been taught from parents and at school alike. So on last week’s Tuesday session, my kids stopped right in the middle of working and began a conversation leading off with, “Mr. Chilaka, did you see Donald Trump’s wife and Michelle Obama? All those memes pairing them side by side, and trying to compare who’s prettier?” One of my female students quickly interjected, “Yeah, I don’t feel that’s right, and then they were saying Michelle’s legs are hairy and Melania Trump is better. They always try to find ways to make black women look ugly.” And the last kid said, “But Mrs. Trump stole from Michelle’s speech though. That’s cheating though right Mr. Chilaka? I know if we copy work that we’d get in trouble.” I refrained from talking about politics with them, but I did take the opportunity to discuss plagiarism and applaud them for recognizing it.

I wasn’t following politics that closely at that age, and certainly not the presidential race in particular. What’s astonishing about this millennial generation though (particularly youth aged 11-16), is how observant they are of the nation’s political status and not so much as how they perceive our current president, but their criticism of who will be next, which on a larger scale really says something about the importance of this presidential race.

While it may be the result of superior technology in 2016 (nearly every middle-school aged kid has a cellphone with 24/7 access to the internet, which wasn’t really a thing back in 2004) that keeps them informed, there are a wealth of other things and people that adolescents could be following other than politicians. I don’t remember much from the Clinton administration and the scandal was rather puzzling to my then eight-year-old self; I knew more about the possible problems of Y2K than with extramarital affairs. The teenage-me back during the Bush Administration was pretty oblivious to political affairs as well. The most I understood was the importance of the September 11 attacks, and that the country was going to “get the terrorists back” for what they did, which to me back then meant World War III and that I or my two uncles (possibly all of us) might be drafted into military service alongside other young men and women. Aside from that, I remembered politics during those years by events, important names and one-liners. For example, hurricane Isabel back in 2003, Condoleezza Rice, Dick Chaney and the phrases “make no mistake,” “weapons of mass destruction,” held a lot of meaning to me back then, and I’d change my voice to mimic President Bush’s southern tone.

Perhaps this generation will remember politics much the same way like I did with one-liners and events, but, as unfortunate as it is, it doesn’t seem like it will be a fond memory, as the tone of politics is arguably more disparaging in nature. I worked with a lot of Latino teenagers at a library event I hosted this summer, and I had to pull out some of my dusty Spanish listening and speaking skills in order to understand what one of the little kids were saying. I enjoyed myself, and I can’t begin to describe how bright their expressions became seeing their tutor interact with them in their native language, but I couldn’t help but flinch at the frightening thought of the current Republican nominee’s stance regarding immigrants, and it was then that something one kid said to me really sunk in: “Mr. Trump is so mean to black and Spanish people. If he wins, he’s going to send everyone back again!”

I may not be as diligent as the next millennial in posting and or discussing politics (I know some friends who almost broke down emotionally when Sanders dropped loss the race, acted as if the senator had died), and, quite frankly, I’m not all that into picking sides and badgering the opposing political party, but I do believe we have a problem when kids view a current candidate as a kind of mean “boogeyman” if you will. It doesn’t help either when the possible next first lady can’t seem to address the nation from the heart or seems to be “cheating” to find the words to say for that matter. Now, granted such political notions can and are influenced by parents, but, even so, back in my time the only politician that was that demonized in the American household was Clinton after the scandal. For the millennials in my age group, you may not have known the exact nature of the scandal, but you were old enough to understand that Mr. President did something bad, lied in order to get out of it and ended up getting into even more trouble for trying to do so. Needless to say your parents would have probably discussed integrity, and, at most, sexual morality, but a “mean” boogeyman that’s plotting his way into the White House who, once there, plans to send family and friends away -- never.

The next generation has a lot to be worried about in this upcoming presidential election, and, though they cannot contribute to the matter in regards to voting, they can certainly (and hopefully) influence people in power, or even just 20-something millennials like myself. They definitely are concerned with who’s going to be sitting in office next year and maybe we ought to be a little more as well.