Minorities for Trump? When Hell Freezes Over and Pigs Fly
Trump is vulgar, obscene, brash, and quite frankly, the least experienced politician to ever be a nominee for President. I went around my job the afternoon of November 8th, hours before the election, to get the vibe before votes were counted. The outlook if Trump was elected was morbid. Minorities for Trump is a fairy tale, or a nightmare depending on which way you lean.
One thing is for certain: regardless of what Donald Trump accomplishes in his tenure as President, he will be starting with the odds stacked against him. Belief in a candidate has never been lower.
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I am of Native American decent, and a father of two children. My babies will reap the consequences or benefits from this Presidency, and their well being is my only concern. With that being said, among minorities I found one common theme: Trump is public enemy number one.
Uncensored. That is one word that can sum up Donald Trump throughout his campaign. This inevitably led to a number of offensive statements regarding minorities. The push for a wall across Mexican-American borders turned them off. The threats to deport illegal immigrants turned them off. The comments of Mexicans being “rapists and murderers” drove minorities up the wall.
When I asked my friend at work who he was voting for, he simply laughed. “Aye guey, you think I would vote for that Puto?” That word seemed to be recurring among the coworkers I spoke with. Look it up, infer the meaning, or simply use the context. When we got deeper in discussing why he wanted Hilary in office, he expressed a theme that echoed throughout the minorities I spoke to: both are bad, but Trump is the Devil in their eyes.
Shortly after, I went to talk with another coworker of mine (also of Latino decent) and he opened with a question: “You ready to go back to Mexico guey? That’s what he said. You’re Mexican or you have a Mexican father he wants you out of the country.”
This made me think. Upon looking at his campaign and the steps proposed by his team in order to fight illegal immigrants, I found a theme myself: the people he wants gone are illegal. He does not want to go door to door, tearing people’s rooms apart to look for their papers. He does not want to start an extraction team to make an Arian Nation. He simply wants people reaping the benefits of our country to follow the rules to be a part of our country.
I tried explaining this; it was a bit of a sore subject. I may have opinions surrounding these topics, as I do have a family and reap the benefits of social programs myself, but I still empathize with people who are in fear, rational or otherwise. I was heartbroken upon hearing a story that my friend Jesus told me about his wife, and it melted me, regardless of my views, and it poignantly sums up what Mexican Americans are experiencing nationwide:
I ask him, “hey buddy, how are you holding up? What did you think?”
“Aye guey. I don’t know. I woke up at 2 a.m. to my wife crying. She’s scared. She doesn’t know if we have to move or what. I can’t believe it.”
I do not have this problem. I don’t know the feeling of fearing for my citizenship nor do I have relatives that have this issue. At the end of the day it seems clear that people are uneducated on the matter, and fear is spreading like wildfire among minorities
They voted for Hilary. Their vote turned out null. In one night, November 8th, 2016, what once seemed like a joke became a reality. Trump won, and in the matter of one night, minorities birthed a fear of being hunted and shipped out, tears running rampant and bags being packed.
Only time will tell if their fears are just, but in this moment, minorities have never felt more alone.