So, here we go. The United States of America elected a new president. Mr. Donald Trump.
Before the election, I somehow got this odd feeling that Brexit would happen to America as well - that is, something that most people believed would never happen ends up happening. When everyone believed that the Britain would not actually leave the European Union, the U.K. surprisingly voted to LEAVE the EU. It came to the international community as an immense shock, and many couldn't believe this absurd outcome. Quoting the New York Times article, "Turbulence and Uncertainty for the Market after Brexit," I would like to emphasize that the Brexit was “essentially against economic rationality and driven by identity concerns and unease about globalization and trade." The Brexit was driven by the ideology of a perilous English nationalism, and ethnic superiority, which inevitably leads to the outbreak of long-hidden racism that had no place in the globalized world of today until the Brexit. The article further said, “If such a vote can win in the U.K., that fosters among investors a sense of the likelihood that Trump can also win, and that will have an adverse effect on capital markets.”
Many experts warned the USA of the very likely outcome of the election of Trump as the new president. However, America made the very same mistake, as did the UK - they voted for Trump. This trend tells me how long we, as a community, have swept under the carpet the issue of social divides along lines of ethnicity, racism, and white supremacy.
I am not American, so I couldn't vote. I jokingly told my friends, "well, at the end of the day, I'm not American, so what can I do?" But the election of Trump has a substantial impact on the entire international community. Trump openly said that he is okay with South Korea obtaining its own nuclear capabilities. A lot of his comments have been driven by Islamophobic policies. He is endorsed by KKK leaders. He opposes to planned parenthood (Thank you, President Obama, for permanently protecting women's rights).
We have already started witnessing so many cases of people of color getting verbally and physically assaulted. Not just on the news coverage. But in our own lives as well. My friends already had white supremacists yelling at them to "go back to [their] people," to "go back to [their] country" - yelling at them that they do not belong here. They say they are going to make America great again. They yell at us that they are going to "grab her by the pussy."
It doesn't make ANY sense to me how so many Americans should feel unsafe and threatened and scared in their OWN home. It just tells me that our world has utterly failed to efficiently and profoundly address and deal with the issue of racism. We live in the twenty-first century, guys. I can't believe that people of color STILL need to fight for their dignity to be treated as HUMANS. We are not any less worthy of life than white folks are. Why do we need to fear everyday of our lives? Why do we need to fear going out to a grocery store? Why do we need to fear seeing a group of white males approaching us on the street? Why do we need to fear wearing a hijab in the land of religious freedom?
I am utterly disappointed in America. Trump is not the cause of this enormous social divide that we now see. He is the symptom of long standing history of racism and white supremacy that we have failed to address. At this point, I don't even know what to feel.
