The actions demonstrated by Trump supporters today are as racist and violent as segregationists in the pre-civil war era. When Trump first won the electoral college votes, I was in denial. Since the alt-right had remained silent for the majority of the election, the bulk population did not expect him to win.
I believe people are not being vocal enough about how much a Trump presidency affects each person individually.
Women are attacked and objectified under Trump’s presidency. Trump treats women as irrelevant, and Melania Trump — after plagiarizing her speech — proved that she will never live up to Michelle Obama’s status as a role model and first lady. Trump has only referred to women in a negative light every time he has spoken of them. What women need is a president that represents them and fights for their rights.
Rather, Trump objectifies women. In an interview after his purchase of the Ms. U.S.A pageant, he said he would change the pageant by getting the bathing suits to be smaller and the heels to be higher (x). While this is not the most demeaning comment Trump has made towards women, it signifies the insignificance women have to Trump as members of society.
Minorities feel as if their voices are unimportant; I have had multiple friends tell me that they feel as if they do not belong in this country anymore now that Trump is our president. Not only does Trump provide no representation for minorities, he also promotes complete erasure of them.
Living as a Latino or Muslim, for example, in a country where the president actively wishes to expel them creates a constant and daily struggle. Children are bullied at school—teased for merely their skin color or religion. Violence has erupted in neighborhoods, splitting people of different minorities into social segregation.
Trump is a businessman; it is in his values to find profit at every stake—whether it means destroying the environment or people’s lives. At the cost of the environment, Trump vehemently proposes finishing the Keystone Access Pipeline, placing a danger to Native American sacred land. Trump is not my president because he values money over the lives and beautiful land of the tortured Native Americans.
My parents immigrated from Iran after the Iranian revolution in fear of their safety, in order to provide a better life for their children here in America. Today, they are both doctors—immigrants who had a slim understanding of America and the English language were welcomed into this country, and their craft was nurtured.
An anonymous nurse practitioner shared:
“I am a nurse at a cardiology office and I put a portable heart monitor on an Iranian Muslim woman, who has been a citizen since 1986. They have wires that connect to a black box the size of a cellphone. She asked me if I had a letter or something she could have so people didn’t think it was a bomb…she said she is more terrified to live here now than she was as a refugee in Iran. This is what Trump has brought upon us”.
My parents were both able to find success, and repay this country in their work only because they were welcomed here. Today, my parents weep for the country that they once saw so much beauty and hope in.
No president in all of U.S. history has caused this much damage to a population, before being sworn into office. Half of our population lives their lives in fear and sadness. No citizen of the United States should be lead to believe that they are more or less a citizen. Trump’s ideology spreads the belief that America needs to maintain a certain dominant race (white) in order to prosper as a nation. This ideology is similar to that of Hitler’s, which resulted in mass genocide and nationwide disaster. Our nation needs unity more than anything; what Donald Trump provides as a president is far from it.
