Throughout the course of his attention-grabbing, shocking, and terrifyingly successful campaign to become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump has been called a lot of things. Frequently dubbed a ‘playground bully’ by his opponents, his distinctive brand of noisy, rabble-rousing politics and his vocal vendetta against anyone and everyone from his Republican opponents for the nomination, to entire religious and ethnic groups, certainly gives justifiable rise to this particular sobriquet. Yet Trump’s bullying tactics have not limited themselves to the world of politics. His damaging and xenophobic rhetoric has made its way to schoolyards across America, with extremely damaging effects on children.
A study carried out by The Southern Poverty Law Centre reveals that the widespread media coverage of Trump’s nasty, xenophobic and brutish rhetoric and insults has normalised it in the eyes of children across the country. The study surveyed approximately 2,000 K-12 teachers, who reported that children in their class belonging to minority groups often targeted by Trump – Muslims and Mexicans in particular – are frightened about what may happen to them in the event of Trump becoming President. According to one North Carolina high school teacher, some Latino students carry their birth certificates and social security cards to school because they fear deportation. Many students are frightened because of what they see and hear of Trump on television and in the media – the situation has become so stressful for some students that 40% of teachers are reluctant to bring up and teach about the election.
It isn’t only students from groups targeted by Trump who are showing the effects of his rhetoric. Other students are using his hateful language in the playground themselves. While teachers acknowledge that they don’t know what it means, thanks to the media exposure afforded to it, they are aware that is it powerful language, and utilise it as such – they say things like ‘you’ll get deported’ and ‘you were born in a Taco Bell’ without knowing what they’re really saying, but having heard Trump say it, they know it will shock. More than a third of teachers surveyed have noticed an increase in anti-Muslim or anti-immigrant sentiment. This of course only increases the atmosphere of fear among their other classmates, lending this year’s presidential election a tense and terrifying element for children of America, never seen to this extent before.
The survey itself acknowledges that it is not scientific, and as with any set of data, there will be flaws – the results are skewed by the demographic of respondents, all of whom chose to respond rather than representing a random sample. Nevertheless, a disturbing trend is evident from the study. Trump’s hateful rhetoric is definitely affecting America’s children. The massive media coverage afforded to his initially entertaining, yet now insidious campaign obviously plays a massive role in this. The normalisation of his anti-immigrant, xenophobic, brash, loud-mouth insults has caused children to adopt this attitude for themselves. And those he targets with his toxic torrent of abuse and threats are living in a more fearful atmosphere, even in doing something as simple as going to school.
