The US Election

As you all know (and if you don't,have you been living under a rock?), Donald Trump was elected America's 45th president a couple days ago.

There have been many protests in America and Canada, alongside many posts, statuses, tweets, etc. verbalized globally about Trump being elected. Recently, there have been many posts about people in minorities' experiences with racism related to Trump's campaign and some of his 'supporters'. I came across one post by my fellow adoptee blogger, Lily Rau, that she shared about an American-Asian woman who was assaulted by a 'Trump supporter' after he told her to, "Go back to Asia!" and was accused of assault when she tried to defend herself. Other minorities are posting letters, notes, or quoting verbal threats said by 'Trump supporters' along the lines of, "Go back home", "No one wants you here", "You don't belong here" and many demeaning racial slurs and names. US minority groups are scared to what is going to become of them in the future and even minorities in other countries are empathizing and sending their prayers.

Obviously, Chinese-adoptees are a minority and the majority of Chinese adoptees on the social media platforms I use are living in the US. Some have expressed their emotions recently on the China's Children's International Adoptee-Only facebook group looking for comfort. One girl posted,

"Anyone else's parents vote for Trump? I feel betrayed. It's sad that parents can say that they love their children but I guess they truly don't want the best for us if they'll vote for a person who thinks we don't belong here."

Another girl commented on the first girl's post stating that her mother didn't support Trump, but her family did. She retold the reason why she refused to have this Thanksgiving dinner with her family,

"Two Thanksgivings ago, my mom's sister (my "aunt") looked me in the eye and said "Chinese people don't belong in American schools because they'll turn everyone communist." She has also said that America doesn't have a race

problem, "Black people just have bad morals" and that "racism is good and based on truth."'

It is very upsetting to me to hear about the very backwards thinking that transracial adoptees still face today.

The very least we can do with this is to use our emotions and power to drive change. Get out and vote, become involved with politics around you (in school, in your community) to drive change and get results. Don't just say what upsets you, if you're truly upset, take action and get involved.