Recently, President Donald Trump expressed his feelings on how he prefers immigrants coming to America to be from a country like Norway and not from countries like Haiti and El Salvador or countries in Africa. Specifically, referring to these places as "shithole countries." Even if we put the words he used aside for a second, it doesn't change the fact that he made the statement expressing his contempt for the countries that are predominantly black or brown and approved of the countries that were mainly white.

It doesn't change the fact that his statement was racially charged.

I may have been born in America but my parents immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia in 1990. I owe everything that I am today to the two of them. My parents fled to America because of the persecution and military regime that was occurring in the only place they had called home all of their lives. They were able to come here and make a life for themselves. Of course, it wasn't that simple. They moved across the ocean, away from everything and everyone they had ever known to a mysterious place they didn't know anything about where they had to learn an entirely new culture.

So many others have stories similar to my parents. Being able to do something as terrifying as that with so much uncertainty ahead, takes so much strength.

Mr. President, those coming from "shithole countries" possess more courage than you any day.

Trump's comments are disturbing but sadly not at all surprising. They fit right along with so many of the other racist statements he has made. Some senators are either denying that Trump said any of this or even seem to suffer from "convenient amnesia." This is one thing that really struck me.

So many people can't afford to just "forget" information when it fits them. If the people who are in power continue with this cycle of just forgetting things when it's convenient to them, we've got a lot more to worry about then people coming in from other countries trying to make a better life for themselves.

Immigrants, and the things they bring with them, are one of the greatest assets to this country. Without the many countries that make up Africa we wouldn't have things like:

1. Math: its history goes back to countries like Egypt, Swaziland, and Uganda

2. Coffee: originating from Ethiopia

3. Jazz: musical elements with African background

Just to name a few things that have the background of "shithole countries."

It's difficult to struggle back and forth with the fact that I have been so lucky to live in this country that has given me so many opportunities, that I may not have had otherwise, but has also let me down in the midst of it all. We just have to focus on moving forward and trying to progress. So many people before us have fought for the rights of immigrants and minorities. We can't let the actions of those currently in power set us back.

I am the product of a "shithole country."

And I'm asking that we all come together to do better. Be better.