Students face and discuss the realities of the imminent Trump presidency
The newness and shock of the presidential election is beginning to die down, and reality is setting in. Television star and businessman Donald J. Trump is the next President of the United States. Along with this outcome, fear and outrage have become the new normal.
Those who have the most anxiety over the election are people of color, immigrants, women and other minorities.
Sophomore Hanan Sherka is Muslim and wears a headscarf daily. She’s been told by the media and her friends to now stay in groups when walking on the street.
“There are people saying that if you wear a scarf you need to have someone with you at all times,” she said. “There have been a lot of hate crimes.”
Also, people who aren’t part of a minority group would also be impacted by our new president. At first, Freshamn Josh Spagnola didn’t think he would be personally affected the result. Later, however, Spagnola began to worry about Trump’s less-than perfect record of public relations. There is a common concern that Trump will initiate a war in the Middle East, and Spagnola realized that when he turns 18 he will be eligible for the draft.
“I know that Trump isn’t great at keeping friends, and he’s good at making enemies. If I were to be drafted it would really suck,” he said.
Similarly, senior Vivian Voth is worried about Trump’s effect on her in the future. In four years, the end of Trump’s first term, current seniors will be graduating college and searching for jobs.
“I don’t think that Trump will do anything for women’s rights, and being female that concerns me – especially for equal pay,” she said.
Unfortunately, few of their classmates are more worried about what will happen in the very near future. An anonymous student admitted that they were worried about their parents, who are undocumented immigrants.
“If [my parents] get deported, I probably wouldn’t see them until after college because they wouldn’t have the money for me to get a plane ticket,” the student said. The student credits a lot of their success to their parents. “I’m not upper, or even middle class, yet they’ve supported me to come here,” the student said.
This student is not the only one who is worried for their family’s safety. Freshman Rihan Delora said, “I’m worried about my family being stopped [by police] in the street.” Trump has supported “stop and frisk,” a method that involves stopping “suspicious people” on the street and searching them. The tactic has been known to target African-American and Hispanic men.
On the positive side, there has been an outbusrt of support for minorites who feel unsafe. Junior Mariam Benazouz supports the recent shows of alliance. “UPrep is showing that we are going to stand together, and nothing is going to affect our support for each other.”