Be warned, this is an opinion piece, and given the recent events in our country, please do not send me, or anyone else on the Talon, hate! Facts over feelings. Just kidding. Thank you<3

Unless you’ve been living under a rock this week, you’re pretty aware of the mess that is the United States of America. And not just because of recent events, but during the past 5 ish years I’ve had of being cognizant about politics, I’ve grown to hate parts of the only place I’ve ever known; being born as a well-off white female to a good family. The first time I realized America was not as “great” as I thought it would be was when Donald J. Trump became the president elect in 2016. I remember I was in the seventh grade when Donald Trump was elected, and at the time, I thought he was a pretty awful guy. Of course, I was 12, so I didn’t know too much about presidential policy. But, I did know a little about Donald Trump as a person. I’d see him on the tv, talking about whatever he wanted, even if it was hurtful, offensive, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, or straight up harassment. I’ve detested the man ever since. I remember talking to my social studies teacher about him during his first run, and I’m pretty sure he was a mild Trump supporter at the time. You know, the ones who are conservatives but don’t want people to know they voted for Donald Trump, so they don’t attend rallies or buy copious amounts of Trump labeled merchandise, which I respected, and somewhat still do to a certain extent. I mean, if Trump’s policies suit your life go for it! But, I have absolutely no respect for anyone who, in the year 2021, still label themselves as a Trump supporter. And here’s why!

Background

Hey Ms. Hurt! We’re gonna be using some sick parallelism right now…

• Saturday, 25 May, 2020:

On this day, George Floyd was kneeled on and strangled by a Minneapolis police officer for 8 minutes and 46 seconds while 3 other officers stood by to watch. Floyd was a victim of police brutality against P.O.C (people of color), and the Black community was outraged- and for good reason. Other victims’ stories were released to the press, revealing the amount of innocent lives being taken due to a racist police system, raising controversy between those who believe the American criminal justice system is corrupt and those who believe it is not; but it’s not the simple. With this, many retaliated via multiple forms of protest. Most peaceful, but some turned violent. Looting and rioting occurred in city streets, and even Charleston was shut down after 6 pm in order to stop rioting. Time magazine reported that 93% if the BLM protests from this past summer were peaceful, but were escalated by police with military grade weapons/gear, rubber bullets, gassing, and the police even tackled protesters. Thousands upon thousands of Americans were either hurt or put in handcuffs, but what did Donald Trump do? NOTHING. nothing. nada. zip. ziltch…actually…he did stand in front of a church and hold up a Bible upside down and hid in the White House bunker for a hot minute. I mean, the only positive thing I can say is that at least he’s funny! But humor and “speaking your truth” can’t save you anymore, Donny. You’ve maintained and fueled a monster.

After those events (not even regarding the BLM protests back in 2015), I was done with America. I couldn’t leave because I was, and still am, only 16. But that did not stop me from looking up universities outside of the country.

The heat of the protests had passed and no justice had been given to those who still need it. Some might’ve even been changing their minds, thinking, maybe the criminal justice system is fine. SPOILER ALERT!!! It’s not. I hate it here. And that says a lot; I have white privilege.

***The U.S Law Enforcement Background:

The current system we use today is the same one we used about 100 ish years ago, with influences from colonial era policing. Clearly, the system is outdated to some degree, but how much?

Think about laws we’ve had in the past: slavery was legal, slave codes, jim crow laws, etc. Jim Crow ended only 70 years ago, but the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s proved that justice had still not been served, that laws, once again, needed to be reformed. What’s the difference between now and the past? Technically, yes, every citizen is “equal” in the U.S today, making it seem like there’s no more room for law reform. However, with the events of George Floyd’s death, it’s obvious (at least to people who think like me) that the system is the same; just a racially motivated as it was in the past. The people in our government today (Donald Trump’s administration) are almost all white men, with the exception of two P.O.C and one woman…and the woman was the other person of color, leaving little to no minority presence in the cabinet.

Every member shown in the picture below appears to be above the age of 50…and I checked.

Here are the members of the cabinet organized by position. This will make sense in a minute, I promise.

Donald Trump: 74 years old, cis white male, President

Michael Pence: 61 years old, cis white male, Vice President

Michael Pompeo: 57 years old, cis white male, Sec. of State

Steven Mnuchin: 58 years old, cis white male, Sec. of Treasury

Christopher Miller: 55 years old, cis white male, Sec. of Defense

Jeffery Rosen:  62 years old, cis white male, Attorney General

David Bernhardt: 51 years old, cis white male, Secretary of the Interior

Sonny Perdue: 74 years old, cis white male, Secretary of Agriculture

Wilbur Ross: 83 years old, cis white male, Secretary of Commerce

Eugene Scalia: 57 years old, cis white male, Secretary of Labor

Alex Azar: 53 years old, cis white male, Secretary of Health and Human Services

Ben Carson: 69 years old, cis black male, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Elaine Chao: 67 years old (definitely doesn’t look it, you go girl), cis asian female (again, you go girl. First generation immigrant checkkkk), Secretary of Transportation

Danny Brouilette: 58 years old, white cis male, Secretary of Energy

Mitchell “Mick” Zais: 74 years old, white cis male, Secretary of Education (as I’m writing this, he is being appointed Secretary in regards to Betsy DuVos’ leave, she’s the blonde on the left in the photo)

***note: He’s from South Carolina. South Carolina is ranked 44/50 in education, meaning we have the 6th worst education system in America. It speaks for itself folks.

Robert Wilkie: 58 years old, cis white male, Secretary of Veterans Affairs

Chad Wolf: 44 or 45, apparently his exact birthday is unknown? That makes no sense. cis white male, Secretary of Homeland Security. I’m not going to count him in the age thing, however, because by what he supports, he has the brain of a 65 year old.

As you can see, 88% of Donald Trump’s cabinet contains cis white men above the age of 50. This may just seem like statistics, but it proves that the people with the privilege are the people with the power. Every single person, including Chad Wolf, grew up with racism and segregation. During their developmental years, they were surrounded by war and blatant, legal racism. Most of these people lived and remember segregation or open racism; they grew up in a time where being a racist was normal. They grew up with racist parents, teachers, police officers, and other adult figures as children, only knowing what you’ve been told. Racism is taught, not something we’re born with. We need to recognize the past and race; it is not something to ignore. The first step for America to becoming “great” is to actually admit that the system is racist.

So obviously, the government is outdated. In the year 2020, our government should not exclusively white men with a sprinkle or two of diversity for the sake of calling it “diverse”.

Overall, 2020 and the second wave of BLM protests this summer proved there was no sign of justice for police brutality/harassment victims in the near future if Donald Trump remained president. And when election day(s) came around, Joe Biden became the president elect.

• Wednesday, 6 January, 2021:

***note: when I say “Trump supporter” I don’t mean people who voted for Trump. I mean people who live, breathe, and would probably die for Donald Trump. And yes, I know, not all people who voted for Trump are bad. I’m saying this type of Trump supporter is traitorous and kinda horrifying.

This past Wednesday (as I am writing this), there was a riot in Washington, D.C at Capitol Hill led by Trump supporters dressed in Trump labeled merchandise, face paint, huge flags, and other America-pri

de esque items. It wasn’t peaceful by any means; the riot started out like a true riot from the beginning. The riot started because Trump lost his second run in the election, and the supporters who attended attempted to (I have no idea how they even planned on doing this…) stage a somewhat of a reverse coup d’etat. Thousands of supporters gathered, mask-less, of course, using physical violence to get into the Capitol so that Trump could have another term, as if that’s how any of this works. And guess what! They succeeded on getting in without any of the retaliation from police we saw this past summer at the BLM protests.

Someone (who will not be named and they are a grown adult with no ties to Academic Magnet, other than through myself. You will never know who) discussed with me that it’s not Trump’s fault his supporters tried to flip the government. Although they are sort of correct, no they’re not. “Trump supporters” as we know them today are different compared to 2015 Trump supporters. In 2015, Trump had the merchandise, the patriotic energy, and the same attitude as he does today. However, his supporters have changed more than he has. Trump was the figure to bring all of his supporters together into somewhat of a fanclub more than a group of supporters. I can understand why Trump became successful with the Republican Party; these supporters with the same opinions found somewhat of a family in following Trump’s political career, and he provided them with something to belong to. However, now that his time is nearly done in Washington, Trump supporters are in a funky spot. What is one supposed to do when their idol is less powerful than before? Obviously, Trump supporters gathered to give their idol his seat back. That’s not how it works, at all, but I think the reason the protests, for lack of a better word, were so drastically different is because of racism and the reality that Trump didn’t want to stop the rioters at the Capitol. I can only assume, based on previous reactions from our current president, that he expected something like this from his supporters. Although he may not be responsible for the actual riot itself, he is responsible for a much larger picture: he fueled traitors for years, failed to condemn white supremacy on National television (most likely because he didn’t want to lose his followers), and continued to drive America back about 150 years with the racism we’ve seen in 2020.

In the year 2021, there is no such thing as a Trump supporter. He only has 8 days left in office, what more is there to support? Is it Trump supporting the supporters? Or are the supporters supporting Trump? I think there is no difference. Trump allows people to celebrate their more extremist views with a large number of other extremists and in return, the supporters offer up their money, time, and mind.

Conclusion: Anarchy?

Don’t trust the government. They’ll put tracking chips in our brains, man!

I’m just kidding. Gotcha, didn’t I? All jokes aside, I don’t know all of the answers, but I think it’s absolutely bizarre how this is how the year turned out. As Joe said: We all saw this coming.

Unless you are a white supremacist, we all know America has always been racist, whether we all say it out loud or

not. I’m counting down the days until Wednesday, January 20th. Hopefully we’ll have a start to a better tomorrow. My only hope is that someone reads this article and sees actual, modern day, and blatant racism within the past year and realizes that, hey, maybe America isn’t so great. Maybe…America needs to get it together and change before we have another civil war.

I know, this article is definitely one of my more lengthy ones. But, for good reason. This stuff is serious! I’ve been convinced for a while that the “Trump Train” is a cult in plain sight, but

Wednesday’s events have never made me more sure of something in my life. This is our future, our children’s future, and everyone’s future! I’m going to sound my own age here, but we need to get these old racist white men out of our government. Although Joe Biden may not be the perfect candidate, he at least sees outside of his age.

Final Statements:

Maybe Biden is a racist, or he’s creepy, but at least I can sleep easier at night knowing that an over-confident, horribly self tanned reality star who never shuts up is out of office. Here’s to a less racist America, America!

Thank you for reading my novel length comparison that allows me to prove my point.

Please donate to the linked BLM funds and shop some of the cool black-owned small businesses! They need it more than Trump “needs” his merch money!!!

•  Survived and Punished: Organizes survivors of domestic and sexual violence who have been incarcerated or targeted by law enforcement https://alliedmedia.org/post/donate-to-survived-and-punished
• Fund for Black Newspapers: Funds black owned newspapers! Support other news sites! https://www.localmedia.org/journalism-fund-for-black-newspapers/
• JusticeLA: Works to defund their police system’s million-dollar police budget. https://justicelanow.org/
• Spirit House: Works to eliminate the community’s reliance on law enforcement through intervention or prevention of incidents of interpersonal conflict and state violence.
• Alaffia: A hair care brand that I actually use! I love it and part of their proceeds go to supporting people in need of hygiene support. They have products to fit all types of hair, no matter of gender or race! https://www.alaffia.com/
• Brave + Kind Bookshop: Us Magnet kids love books, I guess. We have to read so many, so why not get them from a small business! https://www.braveandkindbooks.com/