The Empire Strikes Back
* This article was written on the day after the United States presidential election in 2016. It has no political, racial or biased opinion.
I don’t know what to say about today’s silence on the street. Last night, while I was watching the result of the presidential election of the United States, I wanted to believe President Obama’s message, “The sun will rise in the morning.” I turned off my laptop and went to sleep hoping that the result would change. As soon as I woke up in the morning, I turned on my laptop and went to the CNN website. However, I couldn’t find any blue on the website at all.
I’m not a citizen of the United States of America. I’m a stranger, a traveler, and a student who has been staying in the U.S. just for 10 months. I’m not interested in politics or politicians who are working for themselves, not for people. I have no idea about the presidential election or unrealistic promises of the candidates to attract voters, but I know this is the hardest election for both U.S. citizens and foreigners to understand and support.
What happened to the Unites States of America? How could a man like Trump be a candidate of the Republican party? How could he be the President of the United States? He was born into a wealthy family and is reigning as a king of Trump corporation. He makes a lot of money from real estate, but the money is not always from fair trades. How about the first lady? She looks like a Barbie and Miss America. I saw her emotionless speech and tried to understand her because she is an immigrant, not familiar with English speech. But unfortunately, I couldn’t find any authentic points in her speech.
On the other hand, was Hillary a well-qualified person? She was a senator, and the first lady for 8 years, so she knows about politics and the President’s work very well. Nevertheless, she is a natural born politician. It means that she not only has a lot of experience and knowledge about politics but also can be implicated in many political corruptions and conspiracies. However, if she were President, she would be a historical symbol, as the first woman President of the United States.
There were only two options, Trump or Hillary, a white businessman or a female politician. The play was over. The sun didn’t rise in the morning. A lot of conservative, elderly, white people, especially men voted for Trump. Trump won the election! The Great American Empire began to strike back!
When I saw the election and heard Trump’s promises, I felt the fear of the American white people. They think a lot of immigrants who are from different countries and have different races stole their jobs and money. On one hand, white people need immigrants because most of them do difficult, dirty, and dangerous work instead of white people. On the other hand, white people don’t want the population of immigrants of color to increase too much because they want the country that they took from Native Americans to maintain white supremacy.
Ironically, America was originally native Americans’. The U.S. was built by immigrants. It means all Americans were and are immigrants. They invaded America, bled a lot to wipe Native Americans out, and built their empire on top of it. Now, they oppose to immigration, of course, they mentioned only illegal immigration, try to keep their properties, and want to maintain hidden classes in society.
I was writing this article hearing angry people protest against Trump and shout “Not my president, not today.” This week, I will go to the Yoda fountain and pray for the Master Yoda to come back. Do I need to call Jedi Knights who have hidden their identities and have been living in the world together to protect people from the dark empire? I think we’ll see for a while until the storm calms down. After all, tomorrow is another day. Until then, may the force be with you!
