“Miss Sara, Donald Trump said that if he wins president he’s going to ship us all back to Africa. He can’t do that, right? He can’t come to our houses and make us leave, right? Wouldn’t that be too many houses to go to?”

This is what Donald Trump is telling my two fourth-grade girls. However directly or indirectly, he is telling them that because of the color of their skin they are foreign, outsiders, who deserve alienation. He is telling them that he is going to ship them off, keep them out, and smile all at the same time. He is telling them they are lesser than. Unequal to. Inferior. They are 10 years old and I fear they are starting to believe this of themselves.

I ask what they think of him saying all this. They respond, “I don’t want to go there. There isn’t enough food for everyone.” They have thought of the consequences. They are thinking practically because Donald Trump is cautioning them to do so. He is telling my two beautiful dark-skinned girls that they need to forget about where their people have been and worry about where they could be a year from now. My heart is so heavy.

I cannot help but think of all of the 10-year-old children a couple hundred years ago that were most certainly hunted out of their homes, shackled together and forced onto overcrowded ships, fed to sharks, fed nothing. Upon their arrival, white slaveholders whipped them. This horrific practice began before the inception of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and legally continues up until 1865. For the next one hundred years our nation worked towards the Civil Rights movement. For one hundred years our people fought against our people. Although some folks sought to maintain a system of segregation, our nation worked tirelessly towards equality for all men, women, and children. The fight is not over.

Nearly fifty years later and we are still asking, what is happening to the African American population? We see black women being violently shoved and mobbed by whites at political rallies. Muslims are being barricaded from attending Trump events. Black men are being sucker punched by white men and then getting arrested for walking away. We see people claiming that there are bigger problems then hate.

And to think that all of this happening in a context during which our nation is newly aware of how frequently black men are shot at. Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, has been a catalyst for a discussion on disproportionate levels of incarceration among blacks than whites. 40% of the prison population is made up of the African American population. Whole groups have been removed from our society. In her book, Alexander states that that 22% of the black population is not able to vote due to their legal standing; whether this is due to probation, parole, or currently being in prison. Not only is this felony disenfranchisement incredibly alarming, but it is also changing the face of the popular vote.

In communities with large numbers of people missing, homes are broken and people are merely trying to make ends meet. As a result of structural issues and repeated oppression breaking individual agency down, 8.8% of the black population and 5.9% of the Hispanic population is unemployed, as opposed to the 4.4% of whites. Even though such a large percentage of people are unemployed, the wages set for those working in minimum wage jobs are not nearly adequate enough to move people out of poverty. The 2004 National Low-income Housing Coalition’s report found that there is no place in the United States where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market price. Clearly, our nation is tainted in structural issues that are affecting the lives of individuals that are affecting the lives of entire groups of people. There is no bigger problem then hate.

All the while, fourth-graders are being told they do not have a home here.

Our people are displaced. The system of oppression we supposedly put to rest fifty years ago is deeply entrenched in our society. It is one of devastation. It is difficult to overcome. And unfortunately, Donald Trump is using the same rhetoric once used in an attempt to keep our nation divided. His language is infecting the minds of too many innocent lives.

During my conversation with the two girls I mentor, I tried my hardest to reassure them that this could never happen. That there are laws set in place that could never allow Trump’s statements to become reality. But for the first time I thought, what if Donald Trump really wins the presidency? What would this mean for blacks, Muslims, Hispanics, women, refugees, and those easily influenced? What would this mean for those who believe leadership is synonymous with speaking one’s mind, which in this case, is synonymous with dehumanization?

Will my fourth grade girls grow up in fear? Will they believe that they are unwelcome here? When they learn about slavery in America, will they hate themselves? Will they be ashamed that people with the same color skin as them built this country? Will they be too afraid to admit how strong they are? How strong their ancestors were? Will they be afraid to acknowledge that they come from a people who built a nation who abused them? Will they live long enough to ask these questions or will they die in Donald Trump’s intended exile, either literally or metaphorically?

I must admit that I know very little about politics, but I do know that people are precious to me. Humans are the most valuable resources on the planet—we are also the most toxic pollutions to not only the Earth, but to ourselves. We need to protect our people, ALL people.