To my dear Malayalee family and friends who voted for Donald Trump

In the days since Donald Trump was elected as our country’s 45^th president I’ve watched more news than I ever have, read countless articles from both sides of the spectrum, and patiently listened to my students, friends, and yes even my brown and immigrant family members who voted for Donald Trump. I have tried VERY hard to understand their view points and reasons for wanting a President that has no government experience, who proudly admits that he doesn’t pay taxes, who has blatantly lied to us several times, who is anti-immigrant and has openly supported and promoted racism, sexism, xenophobia, ableism, and even went so low as disrespecting a gold star family.

I get it, not everyone loved Hillary- but what I absolutely don’t get is how many of my own beloved family members and many people in my Malayalee community could support Trump. We are a Christian South Indian immigrant community that is largely defined by our strong religious beliefs, collectivism, and hard work that has resulted in economic stability and success. I am very proud to be a Malayalee American but I am still quite puzzled on how so many people who I share the same ethnic background and skin tone with can continue to support Donald Trump. Has our religion and potential wealth allowed us to forget that we are people of color and immigrants? 

I understand how Trump’s anti- abortion stance gives us pro-lifer's hope and makes him appealing. After all, as Christians we have been taught to believe that all abortion regardless of context is wrong. We were listening when Trump claimed that “you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month on the final day.” If you are a medical professional, then you know how ridiculous this fear mongering statement is. But if not, read this article to be informed of the facts. Late term abortions are extremely rare and only happen in the case of a true emergency. The truth is the rate of abortion has consistently been dropping over the last decade and it currently is lower than it ever has been in this country. I’m assuming that many of us felt that a vote for Trump was a vote that supported our Christian beliefs, values, and ideologies. Does Trump really embody the values and beliefs that we as Christians have learned to be important? Even the Pope has warned us of the scary parallels between Trump and Hitler. If the new Pope is too radical or political for you, watch this short video of Fr. James Martin a well respected Catholic priest and author who reminds us that Pope John Paul II wrote dozens of times about refugees and migrants and argued that it was necessary to guard against the rise of new forms of racism or xenophobic behavior. The leaders of our own faith have spoken out against the exact behavior that Trump has displayed. If you think that Trump is going to help our world be a Christian society which encourages Americans to “do onto others as you would have them do to you" then I think you need to think again.

In addition to being devout Christians, I am proud that many of us have worked our tails off to achieve the American Dream. We as Asian Indian Americans are among the most highly educated ethnic group in the U.S. We also work hard to support our families not only here but back home in Kerala. This economic success was earned through perseverance, hard work, and sacrifices, not through inheritance. So, I understand that we want to keep our pockets deep and our bank accounts full and that a Republican candidate such as Trump will help us do so.  I know that many of us are small business owners (my father included) and that Trump will slash taxes making it easier to for our businesses to survive. Most of us will economically benefit from a Trump Presidency but what about the people in our community that are not as well off as we are, the ones that are still trying to figure out how to make it in this country? 

What about the undocumented Malayalees that are working here, living across the world from their own families and working their butts off to make low wages so they can support their loved ones back home? With Trump’s stance on undocumented immigrants those people in our community will not be able to stay here and this will ultimately work to increase poverty in Kerala. What about our children who attend public school? Trump wants our children who are educated in public schools to be under the power of the grossly unqualified Besty DeVos who has already destroyed the public education system in Michigan . She gave tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of public schools, allowed for vouchers that took taxpayer funds from public schools to private schools, and allowed for profit charter school corporations to operate with absolutely no accountability all while being funded by the taxpayers of Michigan. The education and success of our children is something that all of us hold to the highest importance. School funding directly relates to the quality of our children’s education and also increased academic achievement and success. Are we prepared to see the quality of our children’s education plummet?  What about those of who rely on ObamaCare for health insurance? If this is repealed it could mean that 18 million people will lose their health insurance and 43,000 will die yearly. What will happen to our own grandparents, parents, and children that rely on Obamacare?

Those of us who are American citizens and come from well to do families may not relate to or care about any of above issues but as Malayalees, we all have a few things in common. We are all people of color and we are all immigrants. We may not all have had personal encounters with racism but that doesn't mean that we won't be subjected to them in our future. We have become a more tolerant America when compared to days of my childhood when I was called “Cindu the Hindu” and bullied for being Indian. At a young age, I developed a sense of shame about my Indian-ness and it took many years to unlearn that shame. Things are different now- there are many more brown faces in this country compared to when I was growing up which has resulted in a more widespread acceptance of difference.  But don’t find too much comfort in knowing that we are a more diverse and tolerant society than we were forty years ago- in today’s America there is now an acceptance of what Aziz Ansari refers to as a “Casual White Supremacy." Our Christian identity or economic success will not protect us from racism. Trump himself has said and done many racist things over the past several years. His campaign was one that was built on bigotry and proved to be highly divisive for this country. His campaign has been said to reinvigorate the dying white supremacist movement in this country. In case you didn’t know, white supremacy is the belief that White people are superior to those of all other races. Now please don't assume that all White people think that they are superior to us or that all White people who voted for Trump in this country are racist- because that is just not true. However, In Trump's America people seem to feel more confident and unapologetic about being outwardly racist. As brown people, this impacts all of us!

 Did you know that in the month following election day, there were 1,094 reported bias related hate crimes? 316 of these incidents were anti-immigrant and 112 of the incidents were anti-Muslim. We are all subject to discrimination and even hate crimes just due to the color of our skin. We may be Christian immigrants, but many bigots don’t know the difference between what a Muslim and Christian person look like and probably don’t care. Islamophobia (the fear of Muslims) is real and rampant in this country and even people who are perceived to be Muslim are at risk. As it is our world is an unsafe place. Can you imagine a society in which racism is normalized?  Shouldn’t we feel safe to walk around in our own neighborhoods and cities? Speaking of walking, just yesterday an Indian woman (who is a citizen and lived here for over 30 years) who was taking a walk was detained and had her immigration status questioned in Maryland. Trump’s most recent executive order calls for ban of citizens from 7 Muslim majority countries to enter the U.S. and the executive order makes it clear those seven countries are just a starting point for a likely broader ban. If India is included in this ban, we will all experience the consequences that our Muslim brothers and sisters are beginning to experience. Not all of us are going to benefit from Trump’s America and I think it is time that we stop thinking with our wallets and start thinking with our hearts.

We came to this country, the land of opportunity, to live out the American Dream and we are privileged that we have been able to do so without experiencing some of the hardships other immigrant communities have endured. Not only were we able to come here to receive education and enjoy financial gain, but we able to bring our siblings and their families here to do the same.  We have the privilege of being Christian, the majority religion in this country. Our religious privilege allows our minority identities to be perceived as more normative and less “foreign” when compared to that of our Indian Muslim and Hindu brothers and sister. We did not experience wide spread national prejudice and persecution like Japanese Americans did when they were sent to internment camps. Our people were not subject to the legalized racial discrimination that Chinese people experienced during the Chinese Exclusion Act which prohibited the immigration of Chinese people into the U.S. and denied Chinese people naturalization for 61 years. We as a community have not experienced the long standing history of injustices and inequities of the African American racial group who were brought to this country to work as slaves. America has only given us opportunities and freedoms rather than stripping us of them unlike what this country has done to the Native American people. If it weren’t for the struggles of the immigrant and racial groups before us, we wouldn’t have experienced the tolerance and acceptance that most of us did when we came to this country. If it wasn’t for Civil Rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and the sacrifices of the countless people who worked for racial justice, we wouldn’t have had the opportunities and privileges we have enjoyed in this country and our experience as a community in this country would have had an entirely different story.

As a community, it is time to acknowledge the struggles of the immigrants and people of color who came to this country before us who helped pave the path for our success. It’s time to work in solidarity with other identity groups that are being targeted and attacked just for being a specific race, ethnicity, or religion. Let’s not sit around and turn a blind eye to the injustices happening now in Trump’s America.  Let’s burst the bubble that we as a community tend to live in and get to know our Black, Muslim, Hindu, Latino, Asian, Native American, LGBTQ, Disabled, Veteran, and White neighbors. Let’s speak out and work together as a community to ensure that our new home, The United States of America, is a place where ALL Americans can enjoy the opportunities, freedoms, and success that we have always had in this great country.