I work volunteering with children from elementary to middle school ages at a local after-school program. Every day the phrase “kids say the darnedest things” is proven over and over again. Yet what I’ve found to be most surprising, but not unexpected, is what they think of the President of the country they live in.
The area I live in is a heavily populated Hispanic town, so most of these kids that attend this after-school program are aware of what Trump thinks of them and their families. They come up with games to escape Trump and threaten their peers with things like, “Trump’s gonna deport you!” On one of the days I was volunteering, a group of girls were playing a game where they shouted viral video challenges and they had to stop what they were doing and do the challenge. The challenges they played were the Mannequin Challenge, Andy’s Coming, and their own adaption of Andy’s Coming — Trump’s Coming. In the popular video challenge “Andy’s Coming,” after someone says that phrase, like in the movie Toy Story, people fall to the ground and play dead, as if they were toys on the floor. In the Trump version, though, these kids had to act as if they were jumping over a wall on the border to escape Trump. When I asked them about this game and why they were jumping one of the young girls said, “Because Trump’s gonna build a wall so we have to jump over it.”
On another day, a young boy in his middle school years was telling everyone about his plans for the summer while he was waiting to be picked up, and was anticipating a trip to Mexico once school was out. He seemed so excited about going to visit and stay with his grandparents for the summer, but towards the end of his news he seemed a bit upset. He said he had to go see them now since they are in fear and can’t come over to the U.S. “because of Trump.”
These kids are well aware that the President of the country in which they live does not fight for them nor protect them. It’s saddening to think that children have to grow up in this administration with the fear of what will happen to their families and to them, and that they can’t trust their government to have their best interests in mind. What can be beneficial for them, however, is for them to note the importance of fighting against hatred, bigotry, misogyny, racism and sexism, and to be engaged. Also, we must teach our young ones to be accepting of all people and to to not follow the hatred they see in their President. It’s true when they say kids our are future, and I can only hope Donald Trump teaches them what kind of people not to be and inspire them to be better.
