With Love and Kindness: Thank You Mr. Trump

Dear Mr. Trump,

The subtitle must be scary, I know, but stick with me - you need a token minority more than ever right now. I’m writing this letter to thank you from the bottom of my heart for events and outcomes you would be mortified to be associated with.

You see, I was born to Pakistani parents in London, England and grew up in Saudi Arabia before moving to Canada at the age of 15. Growing up in the Middle East and Pakistan, I was acutely aware of the impacts of a baseless “war on terror” and the influence that American politicians had on other countries while their population remained utterly brainwashed and uneducated. Whenever I said anything about it, I was called unpatriotic, a terrorist sympathizer, or given extreme counterpoints didn’t align with the conversation at hand. But when you were elected, I got my first gift.

People finally felt a fraction of that fear and pain for the first time. Don’t get me wrong, I would have preferred that they not have to feel a debilitating fear for their safety and a complete disregard for their humanity based on arbitrary distinctions, but people have a curious way of getting comfortable in their complacency. People were made aware of the brilliant rhetoric conceived by mass manipulators like Edward Bernays to link government criticism with patriotism, making any valid critique close to impossible to make. You reminded people of the historical foundations of Western colonial states: of the brutal genocide of people Indigenous to these lands, of the theft and brutalizations of Black people during slavery, and of the implementation of systems of control like policing to ensure that these groups remain inferior. This brought powerful movements started by Black women and queer folx like Black Lives Matter, the women’s march, the movement to #DefundThePolice, among others. We are powerful together. We are powerful when we connect with others, care for them with no expectations, and treat nature and the lands we live on with a sense of mutual respect and gratitude. These movements bring us closer to this reality and a strong reckoning with capitalism and the emptiness of striving for materiality at the expense of connection.

With this came my second gift. You brought to the surface the pain, fears, and financial and social losses that have fueled populism, nationalism, and genocide time and time again in our recorded history. Most white supremacists are quite terrified and deeply insecure, quite like yourself. They long to a return to an ideal of a time that never existed by looking at the past with rose-coloured glasses, forgetting that they themselves wouldn’t have lived up to Hitler’s Aryan definitions. You’ve always wanted to feel special and we all played into it - negative attention is better than no attention, right? Here’s the thing: you’re not. You’re just the face that that emerged at the perfect time, when societies globally were reaching a tipping point of frustration mixed with racially-fueled populist sentiments from a brutal financial crisis less than ten years before you were elected.

In all honesty, you, Mr. Trump, are the most American president to exist. You represent what the world sees and resents about the United States so deeply. You are ignorant, poorly educated, entitled, driven by materiality, and deeply selfish. You represent a country that has shown its true colours time and time again. When people say “this is not the America I know,” I implore them to walk to the closest improverished neighbourhood and speak with the people there.

So thank you for showing the reality that so many of us knew and were ostracized for voicing. Thank you for bringing the deeply rooted social tensions to the surface. Thank you for reiterating the insanity of the myths Americans hold so dear in a way that has mobilized people in unprecedented ways. Thank you for empowering the current generation of youth to be kind, compassionate, vocal about injustices, and active in figetting for a world that we all want to live in.

It must be exhausting to live with the defensiveness, inflated ego, and deep insecurities that you exhibit every single day. So with a genuine heart, I wish you the best of luck with your future endeavours and I hope you find inner-peace. As a fellow human being, I extend love and kindness to you and your family.

Sincerely,

Anushay Sheikh.