Response to Karla

Original post: https://kdapolitics.blogspot.com/2016/11/how-did-u.html?showComment=1479438256227#c7644916187495850980

Karla, I really couldn't agree with you more. Trump's statements are appalling, but they speak to something greater than people's racism. I think people have been bottling up their hate since the civil rights movement, then all of the sudden a celebrity comes along and validates everything they’ve been thinking. The majority of Trump’s constituents are lower socio-economic white Americans, a population that in many ways only has their race to separate them from other minorities. Trump and his campaign, and now his administration, saw that opportunity and took hold of it tight. So yes, many of Trump’s supporters are bigots actively fighting POC, women, and members of the LGBT+ community. However, I would argue that the real more harrowing reality of Trump’s winning is that people are willing to tolerate racism and xenophobia rather than have Hillary in office. Acknowledging that some of their fellow voters are racist but distancing themselves from that hate is really harmful because it allows genuine xenophobic rascits to get away with feeling thw way they do. Any Republican official worth a damn is staying faaaar away from Trump’s cabinate, so all that’s left is racists like Steve Bannon.

An Immigration Take

As a middle-class white American, I often felt distance from the issues suffered by people of color. Growing up in a small majority Mexican town, I had seen families broken by discrimination and immigration, but I didn't truly sympathize until two years ago.

A dear friend of mine, we'll use the fake name Oscar, was traveling with his family to California. While driving through Arizona they were stopped by an immigration officer without probable cause. The officer harassed Oscar's father calling him a "wetback" and a "beaner." Oscar's father asked the officer not to insult him in front of his children, and the officer asked Oscar's father for his papers. Oscar's father is an undocumented citizen, he's lived in America for over 30 years with his wife, who is also undocumented. When Oscar's parents couldn't provide papers, his father was detained. Oscar's mother was not because one of Oscar's siblings is still a baby. Oscar hasn't seen his father in 2 years, he hasn't heard from him in 6 months. I knew Oscar's dad, he was a good man. He worked hard, he cared about his family. He always considered himself an American. Oscar's father was brought here as a boy, and never got legal documentation out of fear of what would happen to him and his family.

American immigration policy and xenophobia has created a fear of government among minorities and immigrants from all countries, not just Mexico. America, the land of immigrants and safe haven, is a lie with a giant green statue. Xenophobic, racist, discriminatory rhetoric has been spewing from American mouths for generations and is now a campaign spearheaded by our possible future president, Donald Trump.

Trump's words are more than just scary, they're more than just joke material for kids on Twitter and late night hosts. The hateful dialogue created by Trump validates the opinions of racist officers like the one who stopped Oscar's dad.

Now I know you might say that an undocumented man driving a minivan full of Mexican kids is suspicious; I would say that they drove through 2 states without being stopped, and even when they were the officer never explained why he pulled them over.