Dear America,

Being a black kid in America is hard enough without having a white man as president who is a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, bigoted, homophobic spray-tanned banana. This isn’t what we meant when we said “Orange is the new black.”

Everything that Obama started will be completely washed away. I have no idea why people who Trump has verbally assaulted on a daily basis still voted for him. If anyone had talked about my people that way, I would never give them anything back, especially not a vote.

I grew up being told to always look at what I did, especially in front of other people. Not that my mother was being racist, but a black kid will always be looked at a little bit differently. I had a teacher in the sixth grade, who on the first day of school told me that even though “you couldn’t afford your books,” it was ok because I could get copies from her. I didn’t have my books for her class on the first day because, like many kids, my books were on backorder. But unlike most,  I was one of the two black kids in that class. I never disrespected her, but it became very hard not to talk back when I knew that she was treating me differently.

America’s a unique place. You never know what going to come around the corner. Whether it be good or bad you always know that something’s coming. For the past year, I never even considered Trump being elected president. I always just talked about the good things that Hillary would do during her presidency. I wasn’t trying to stay positive. I wholeheartedly thought that Hillary would be president. There was no doubt in my mind that Hillary would win. Then, the other night, when I saw the polls before i went to bed, I was genuinely scared. Terrified of what we, as a country had done. The things that he can do now that he is president is troubling. I had assumed that if he was elected president that congress would veto everything he tries to do… but it doesn’t look like that going to happen. I would say that it would all be ok, but I don’t’ know that. We will just have to wait and see what he will do us. We have no power anymore.

Sincerely,

A powerless American

Introduction to Journalism students at Masters wrote letters to America, sharing their reactions to Donald Trump’s victory in this week’s presidential election. Tower will be posting these reactions over the next few days as members of the community try to understand the significance of this major shift in our political landscape.