Students complain of hate speech after Trump victory

By Brianna Kurzynowski gargoyle@flagler.edu
Some students at Flagler College say racist and sexist comments have spiked since Donald Trump was elected president on Nov. 8.

“Trump’s presidency is already impacting me and everyone I love. We have been more publicly persecuted,” said Karina Aragon, a senior whose parents are from Costa Rica. “I don’t have a fear for being deported or anything like that” – Aragon was born in the United States – “but there’s a fear for our safety.”

Aragon said she has had a few people say derogatory comments to her.

“Prior to the election, I had a white co-worker tell me that I was most likely no legal nor were my parents,” she said. “And that Trump was the way of the future.”

After the election, she said two older white men told her to “pack [her] bags.”

Another Flagler student, Kayla Lloyd, a young African-American woman said she started to lose hope during the election once Trump won the state of Florida.

“I knew that as soon as [he] won Florida, that it was over,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd, like Aragon and many others, has also been affected by the outcome of the election.

“I’ve had a couple times when cars have been driving past me saying ‘get ready to move out of the way’ and called me the n-word,” she said. “And then they said this is Trump’s America now.”

She said some of her friends told her they thought she wouldn’t experience any hate crimes.

“When in reality it’s not just happening to me, but it’s happening to a lot of other people, including other family members,” said Lloyd. “It’s the lack of awareness [that] has affected me as well.”

Lloyd added, “Trump doesn’t necessarily scare me. It’s the people that he has got to come out and think that racism is OK and sexism.”

Sarah Hierl, a Bernie Sanders supporter, said she has not been insulted by anyone as a result of the election but she is afraid that women will not be taken seriously anymore.

Hierl, a young white woman said “I have many friends that are Hispanic, black, LGBT [and] females. I feel that they are out at higher risk from the hateful rhetoric going around.”

The upcoming presidency not only will affect older generations of women, but girls as well.

Throughout the campaign process and leading up to the election, Trump was quoted saying very demeaning statements about women.

Some of these include:

“And when you’re a star, they let you do it… You can do anything,” Trump said. “Grab them by the p—y… You can do anything.”

One of his tweets: “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes you think she can satisfy America?”

Lloyd said his statements were inappropriate. “And the fact that people completely ignored that and still voted for him … I’m just shocked,” she said.

The president is a figure we look up to as kids and fully respect. Children, especially girls, should be able to look up to their president and aspire to be the leader of the free world one day. Women should be respected by their president just as much as men.

“I hope that young women will be taught that they deserve respect and have the same rights as everyone else,” Hierl said. “I was informed that there are women still being appointed to high government positions, that facts leads me to hope that women will continue to be able to move forward in life.”

Lloyd agrees it is concerning that Trump is now the president and that young girls probably heard some of the comments he said about women on the news.

Aragon thinks the present generation has to tackle the job of teaching younger girls that they should be respected and will one day be able to do whatever they aspire to do.

“I think that the generation that is present, the one who wants to build up confident women, it is now our job to raise the following generation,” Aragon said. “The media will always tell them one thing but the truth comes from those who love them. Those who are with them when they come home crying after being told they’re not worthy. We are the ones who will build them up and tell them differently.”

Aragon added, “Women’s rights have come a long way and we are still not done.”