I have a young family member that wants to vote for Trump.

Yes, I know that title shocked you…it shocked me to my core also. Anyone who knows me and my family knows that we have a strong history of being unapologetically black and proud. We were taught our rich history, both before and after slavery. I am a proud supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, my entire family is. So how did someone so close to me end up being a Trump supporter?

My family blames it on the crowd he hangs around and the town he was raised in. We’ll call it little town America where there was only a handful of black people with you in school. I quickly explained that does not make sense because no one else in the family feels this way and would ever support Trump. Also, you can’t blame it on the crowd he hangs around. Growing up in high school I had a diverse group of friends. That is something I love by the way. I love the fact that I know Africans, Latinos, Asians, Indians, etc…etc. Isn’t that what makes America so beautiful, diversity? I digress.

Ever since his revelation, I have been getting calls from family members urging me to speak with him and try to reason with him and inject some “sense” into him. Just the mention of the topic can start an instant disagreement of everyone yelling at him and him tuning them out or walking out altogether.

I waited a few days to call out of the blue and dive into a real political talk with him. I said, Hey dear… I heard you want to vote for Trump, care to tell me why? His reply was quite simple in fact and something I have heard from a lot of Trump supporters. He said, “People are just tired of politics as usual and these politicians just playing the game of politics and not getting anything done.” That response, it really resonates with me. I could not agree more, everyone is tired of politics as usual the game playing that has been happening lately in this country. Everything from wanting to see the president’s birth certificate to having full blown government shut downs because no one could agree on budgets, to Congress (House republicans) blocking any and every bill that came through no matter how beneficial it was to the country because they just “did not want to support Obama”. Yes, everyone is sick of politics as usual. It seems like for the past 8 years it has been the republicans who are playing political games and politics as usual and now they are the very ones demanding a change….but I digress again.

I mentioned all of this to him and he got quiet, I knew he was thinking so I continued. I asked him what are you in fear of or angry about? Almost everyone who backs Trump is either fearful or angry about something and Trump is good at exploiting that emotion. I mean have you seen the convention???

Scary right?

This family member said that he is both angry and fearful that there is not enough jobs and will not be enough jobs for him. He is not the school type. So college degrees are not something he is really aspiring to go for. He is a skills worker, good with hands and a hard worker. Many people in the manufacturing and construction field blame Obama for the jobs not being available in this market.

I mentioned to him about this article I had just read. By Tami Luhby, a writer for CNN Money, it was a great article on why Trump will not be able to “bring jobs back to America”, in that article she notes that:

“The nation has seen a decline of nearly 5.5 million manufacturing jobs over the past 25 years. Looking specifically at China, one study found that the U.S. lost 1.5 million manufacturing jobs due to growing exports from China between 1991 and 2007. That accounts for about 20% of all manufacturing jobs shed over that period. Many of the jobs lost were in factories that made toys, clothing, furniture and other labor-intensive industries, which were relatively low-skilled. The manufacturing jobs that return will involve more technology and require more education and training”.

Basically what she’s pointing out is that the world has changed and the way we make thing specifically in the U.S. has changed over time as well. So many jobs require some kind of knowledge of technology and or experience. Getting a job in manufacturing in today’s job market is going to require gaining some of this knowledge and experience from a form of school.

So Trump’s promises of just “bringing those jobs home” are more hype than actual fact. I informed my dear family member, sorry to burst your bubble. but Trump and his entire campaign is political games and politics as usual. even more empty promises with no real plan or ability to bring them to pass

He was quiet still, in all the arguing and defending of Trump that he has been doing I guess no one really sat down and listened to him and actually answered the questions he had. So I continued the questioning more, I asked, “What is something that you want to see get done that is not currently getting done under Obama?” He replied that there is not enough being done to protect us from the potential of Islamic terrorists coming into our borders and bombing us like what happened in France.

I explained to him that domestic terrorism is a larger threat in this country, particularly white men who are right wing extremist and/or a part of a militia. In fact, according to a study done by the New America Foundation, prior to the Orlando night club shooting there were more deaths by white men right wing extremist (48) than any jihadist in this country (45). Instead of fearing those who are worlds away, we need to focus on those who are terrorizing our own citizens and have a real conversation about guns in this country.

With that he was done with the conversation for now. So we got off the phone and decided to pick it up for another day. In the mean time, I have been sending him interviews, news stories, articles, etc all about what is wrong with Trump and facts about Trump that he might not know. He has been reading and texting back. He’s been very welcoming and the more he learns and the deeper the conversations get, he is often left speechless only being able to say, “WOW!”

My point about all of this ladies and gentleman is simple. Trump scares the hell out of me. Him and his klansman following is not what I want to see in the white house to represent our country. So people, talk to each other. Ask your family and friends who they are voting for and why. If it is Trump, really dig and get to the bottom of the reason why. It is each and every one of our responsibility to personally see that this man and his crazy goons do not become President.

Each one reaches one. Please do not just brush off or joke about someone who thinks they want to vote for Trump, especially if they are close to you. Let’s do the work and make this country better for real, one conversation at a time.