I am an immigrant. I’m a Legal Resident Alien. I have lived in America for 10 years, and I like it here. The huge majority of people that I have met are people I have liked.
I have met a few that I didn’t like, and they were generally ignorant and bigoted and not unafraid to share their opinion with me. I was offended by this, and I was offended by their assumption that it was OK to unpack their hatred because we were both white. I told them as much, and it was like pouring gasoline on a fire. Suddenly I was a foreigner who didn’t understand the way things work here.
I have noticed that people with these kind of viewpoints have been emboldened since the person sitting in the White House has expressed views in a similar vein.
Something about The Donald seems uniquely American to me. Some of the things he does wouldn’t fly outside of the US, and I think this is why I find it hard to watch or listen to him. It isn’t the ugliness and ignorance that are uniquely American, because I have found it other places I have lived. It is the feeling that it is OK to talk the way he does in public with no fear of reprisal or repercussion. It is the price we pay for a system that allows people to flourish as well.
His closest UK equivalent, which might be Farage, or possibly Theresa May herself, at least couch their prejudice and disregard for others in less inflammatory terms. Does this matter? I’m beginning to think it does. I think people should be on the back foot when it comes to bigotry and the expression of it; it really isn’t going to do much to hide it, but who the hell wants to hear it? You will still be able to detect the prejudice on the part of the problematic individual, but perhaps it might limit their ability to spread their prejudice and their propaganda.
Free speech shouldn’t allow hate speech free reign. I’m not sure if it is facile to say that it would be like allowing someone to shoot people because gun laws say they can have whatever kind of gun they want, but words really can be just as dangerous.
I don’t feel like I should feel excluded when the President speaks to the country, and I didn’t feel that way when President Obama spoke. I didn’t feel that he excluded people from communications that were supposed to be directed to nation as a whole. President Trump’s statements seem to play just to his base though, and he is not encompassing of the notion of dissenting opinion, or of the validity of lifestyles that he or his government disagree with. If you read the Constitution and the amendments it seems that this exclusion of anyone seems counter to the intent of those documents. Americans are diverse, and that is supposed to be something recognized, and supported and celebrated. This country really was built on the back of immigrants, and the Government was constructed to allow the voicing of differing opinions — the project of America derived from the cooperation of public servants coming from two different positions, not from the beating into submission of one party by another. The President isn’t supposed to have a mandate to solely what he wishes to do.
Can you disagree with a President and respect the office? Can you protest against the flag and not disrespect people who fought for what it represents? Can you disagree? The answer is supposed to be yes, because the Constitution allows for this, but in practice it is becoming harder to exercise these rights. Dissent and disagreement are being rounded on.
I don’t want my status as an immigrant to reduce my status. I don’t think it should. Why should it erode my privacy and make me an immediate suspect? Why should I surrender passwords and access to my private data? As an immigrant you already submit to extensive background checks, and the immigration procedure isn’t the easiest in the world. Why should all my private thoughts and communication be laid bare? There has to be an assumption that I am doing wrong.
I want to take my Citizenship exam eventually. I liked the notion that in America you can move freely through the society without so many class barriers as exist in England, but that feels like it is under threat. Even if I have children here, can I ever be an American? Will Mr Trump be speaking to me in any other way than to point out the problematic nature of what I am, which is an immigrant?
