By Akeem Ivory
Staff Writer
I am indifferent to Donald Trump’s win. Is it because I don’t think politics are impactful? No. Is it because I don’t care about some of the extremely offensive statements he has made? No. Is it because I don’t care about his policies? No. The reason why I’m not losing sleep over him being elected is because as an African-American in this country, the odds were already stacked against me to begin with.
In my lifetime, four different people have taken office, one of them being the first black president in our history, but despite of this, my experience as a black man has stayed the same.
We now have a president who has said his share of racist comments, and although this is inexcusable, black people are already experiencing extreme amounts of racism on a daily basis, so how would this make anything worse, or better? The government and black communities did not have a good relationship to begin with. How could they when the very people vowing to protect and serve them are killing their brothers, fathers and sons, because of the color of their skin?
Throughout this election many people were shocked that a man with Donald Trump’s history would even be a choice of president. Most people saw this as a joke and disbelieved that him being elected was even a possibility. I think this shock came from the American people not believing that racism was as prevalent in our country, from my experiences being racially profiled and discriminated against because of my race, this wasn’t a surprise.
My feelings toward this were reflected in a sketch from Saturday Night Live called “Election Night,” where the white comedians looked in horror of Donald Trump’s election, but the black comedians, Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle, saw what was coming the whole time.
With that being said, there was a positive thing that came out of this election season, new Senator-elect, and woman of color, Kamala Harris. Harris coming from a half Jamaican, and half Indian background, makes her the second black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate, the first black senator from California, and the first ever Indian-American to serve as a U.S. Senator, and someone who could really make a difference for minorities in this country.
