When I think of my family, I think "Mini United Nations". We are comprised of several different ethnicities and religions, and our background stretches to all four corners of the globe. If you were to look at a picture of us, you would see this very clearly. Without explanation, however, one could very easily question our relation. I could recognize these differences from a very young age, yet I never considered them to be differences. All I saw was my family and myself, very plain and very simple.

It was not until this past year that I really began to see how society could pick apart and categorize my family.

With the turn of the presidential administration, there has been a strong increase in divisiveness across the country, a divisiveness that feeds, and will continue to feed on illegitimate fears caused by a lack of secular understanding. As a consequence of this, I have never, ever been so uncomfortable in my life to live in our country. Every day I am faced with the fear that someone, somewhere, will harass a loved one of mine solely because of the skin on their back, or because of the god that they believe in. Every day there seems to be new incidents of hate crime going on in some town a little too close for comfort. Every day I worry.

So, how do we stop hate from winning over and over again?

The answer could not be any more simple or any more intuitive- we need to continue educating ourselves. We need to take what is unfamiliar, learn about it, and make it familiar. Once we can do this, we can start breaking down the walls that divide us. Once we can do this, America will truly be great again.