Trump vs. “The Squad”: Four Minority Congresswomen Empower CCNY Students to Never Back Down
By Sayra Ilyas
The following feature piece appeared in the September 2019 edition of The Campus.
“Goback to where you came from” is a harrowing offense that has been heard by manyimmigrants who grew up in The United States of America. The xenophobic rhetoricthat plagues this country has been exacerbated by its very own President. OnSunday, July 14th, President Donald Trump stirred up yet another Twitterstorm, tweetingabout four minority Congresswomen who should “go back and help fix the totallybroken and crime infested places from which they came”. These four women,otherwise known as “The Squad”, are representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ofNew York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Presley of Massachusetts, and RashidaTlaib of Michigan. All four women are lawful citizens of the United States,three of whom were born in the U.S. while Representative Omar has been anaturalized citizen for nearly two decades.
Thetweets emerged at the time of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, whichtargeted 2,000 undocumented immigrants ordered by the courts to be arrested anddeported from the country. As a result, families were torn apart and throwninto detention centers along the border where migrants are forced to sleep onthe concrete floor. In response to the President, Congresswomen Ocasio-Corteztweeted, “Mr. President, the country I ‘come from,’ & the country we allswear to, is the United States. But given how you’ve destroyed our border withinhumane camps, all at a benefit to you & the corps who profit off them,you are absolutely right about the corruption laid at your feet”. Despite the negativecriticism against the government’s mishandling of the situation, The TrumpAdministration continues to support the rapid deportation of working-classimmigrants.
By2060, it is projected that non-Hispanic whites will lose their majority statusto the growing minority population. Could this be the reason behind all the xenophobiaand anti-immigration policies? Nonetheless,Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi responded to Trump’s tweets, firing back thathis famous campaign slogan “Make America Great Again,” “had always been aboutmaking America white again.” Where does this rhetoric fit in with The CityCollege of New York, one of the most diverse colleges in the nation, representingover 150 countries in its student body?
ShilpaShaju is a South Asian undergraduate student at the Collin Powell School forCivic and Global Leadership. She is currently on a pre-law track with a doublemajor in Political Science and International Studies. Shilpa said her mainreason for wanting to go into law and politics stems from the rapid decline ineffective leadership in this country. In an interview she said, “When I startedcollege, I never had the intention of pursuing politics nor law. However, I’vewatched our country take a turn. Suddenly, we were no longer a country whichwelcomed immigrant families, like mine, but one that closed its doors on them.”When asked about Trump’s comments, she responded with, “I would be lying if Isaid I have not encountered his words before. Never would I have thought that Iwould hear these words from a President. But, times have changed. It goes toshow that now, more than ever before, diversity needs to increase in politics.Minority women need to show the President that we will not be afraid and wewill not go back to our country, because this is our country”.
Eva Friedberg, an undergraduate double majoring in International Studies and Anthropology who is of Syrian ancestry, commented saying, “Trumps comments towards the four women of color in Congress employ a white nationalistic rhetoric that both allows and encourages hateful speech and violent actions in this county. When the most, unfortunately, important figurehead of the United States avows a ‘send her back chant’ I am not only deeply saddened but scared of what the future holds. It is our job as students to use our knowledge and privilege to fight through the ignorance and hate.”
Thegeneral sentiment felt by the CCNY community demonstrates that all the blatantracism and xenophobia intended to divide this country further, are rather beingused to fuel the fight against injustice.
