Those are things we don't want in the United States and one other thing There's people with predatory behavior in every– Excuse me, but you get mad at me But if I could say this, it's not baked into their religion Trump supporters, can I have you over there. My immigrants can I have you in the other light? Sometimes I feel anxious about how the other side views me. Uh, so it's not necessarily about the idea of immigrants, but I'm Muslim and there can be a lot of directed aggression from Trump supporters that I think I felt and other people in my Muslim community have felt and That's why I'm here sitting with you guys. I own a clothing line Magga preneur. This is my clothing line. I'm a political strategist and a political activist and when I leave my house, I am in fear for my life because every day I get death threats So I think we both should be able to freely express ourselves. I love everybody, I'm here for everybody I'll fight for your right for freedom, but I expect for you to fight for mine too because that's why we're in America My name is Shastina, so I absolutely love immigration but I believe that we need to secure our border and it's the same thing of I wouldn't just let anyone in my car or in my house. Alright, disagreers come on in I used to get anxious about How I'm perceived not just by some quote-unquote other side because my identity is very apparent in standing in my truth I think it allows other folks to stand in theirs and to invite people to also learn more about me rather than Be worried about how I'm perceived. I think my group gets represented unfairly in the media. [laughter] Well I'm a Mexican and I hesitated because when Trump said that things about Mexicans being criminals and all that I I didn't take it personal because I'm not that So I was like that does not represent me like I'll take things yeah, so that's why I hesitated But then I'm like I am not only one Mexican individual who's an immigrant I'm part of all the immigrants no matter. What country You're from We can say the same thing for Trump supporters right I mean Now we have to maybe I wasn't called a racist, but you were called racist well guess what we're both Trump supporters So now we have to band together Could I, could I ask both of you a question and I'd like an honest reaction to this in my mind, It's languaging I'm a writer, and I think if we made a distinction between jihadists and Muslims that would solve a big problem That's plausible and I think a lot of that goes in it's really the realm of how much people really are interested in understanding that kind of diversification and uh, allowing the community that does know that really I don't know take the lead and Initiative and show other people what that's about. I feel threatened by this presidency. When President Trump got elected as president. I was scared even though I had Not a reason to because I'm legal here power becomes scary in hands of a monster power becomes scary in hands of ignorance, and I'm scared about My people and not only like I said the Mexicans all the good, hard-working immigrants. Yeah, I think the election night was when I felt alarmed. I've been a community organizer and an activist for 15 years now right that night It felt like a slap in the face To all of the work that we have always tried to do in terms of humanizing ourselves. My name is Kipasha I think we realize as immigrants how lucky we are to be here, and that's why we want to create a society That's more welcoming for others to be here >>You said it was a slap in the face, and I take offense to that because You're saying you work so hard And yet we work so hard to to Elect a president of the United States that we think will enforce the the laws We'll enforce the United States Constitution and it wasn't to be racist or it wasn't to Boot you out of the country, and it was to enforce the First Amendment It's actually to enforce your freedom of speech. I understand why you're scared That as a white Trump supporter I am scared of this presidency because I have lost my freedom of speech I have lost my freedom of religion I have lost my freedom to wear this shirt in the public just because I have a different political view Now I'm the enemy in my own country I think that that's unfortunate about happened to you But it's almost like you have some semblance of the reality that people of color live with for centuries here And I've never seen that and I've never the first time you felt that right, right But I I'm just gonna let you know that my neighbors are black. I have Muslim neighbors I have I have neighbors of all kinds when we go to the grocery store, and I'm picking out yogurt I'm picking out yogurt this looks like someone just like you, but it doesn't mean that you experience the same thing I think even though we eat the same yogurt but nobody in my County treats people like that it's Just not. I don't think you would be able to say that I've lived in Orange County up until a few months ago If I'm at a mall or if I'm even at the beach right I get a lot of strange stares I even feel like a lot of people after the election came up to me asking me about my positions my religion my identity so what I'm trying to say is like I can actually relate to what you went through because that to be honest is a shred of similarity to what people of color we came here, and then we were born basically sure I Believe in immigration, but I am against illegal immigration My whole thing is assimilation right so like making sure that the culture's match if you know someone in the Middle East who's Gay will be killed right That's a thing and it's horrible if someone with that culture is somehow makes it through vetting and comes here And then sees a gay couple you know kissing or whatever They're gonna Freak out or they're gonna react very differently in a way that you know we're trying to move past or not trying to be held back by so I believe assimilation is Probably one of the most important factors of why we need legal and not illegal immigrations my thing is about money An awful lot of people who came here legally don't want Illegal people being able to come or get free college it costs a hundred and eighteen billion Dollars in welfare benefits, that's a huge Why do I have to pay so that Walmart has cheap workers my name is Ken hunger? I don't have anything against immigrants. It's a political problem. It's not an immigrant problem. I Was an illegal immigrant at one point in my life I am not anymore but ultimately we left a country of war a country where extremism and terrorism was a reality and This is something that was on a daily oppression towards women If we don't have legal immigration And we'll have that here we want you to come and be safe But don't you want that for everyone else? doesn't matter where you're coming from I think it might be a misconstrued and/or a misconception to think that the Illegal immigrants might bring up the crime rates and when we're talking about what happens After immigrants or refugees or illegals or anything coming to the state and how can we help them from here? I think that is the real essential question we have a humanitarian duty to help one another out regardless of if we're Afghan if we're Israeli if we're American we're all humans ultimately it's so fantastic But what about our vets what about our children that are starving? What about our foster homes that are full? What about them? We're not helping them, we're taking in all these refugees if we can't fix our citizens How can we fix others? It's just kind of like if I can't love myself. I can't love another person It should be easier to immigrate into America It should be easier the way time should be shorter, right But I believe that it's so lengthy not because the process is so extreme. I've I mean personally I think it's so lengthy because it's mismanaged. Yeah, I think that Well that too, but I think it's just like there's a way in a process That should be put in place so it's not 15 years. Let's say that they fully cooperate, right Let's say they have everything they have all the documents, and they're ready yeah, I think it should be a lot shorter Do you think make it less bureaucratic yeah basically, okay? I mean I think I would agree with that I just feel like when it comes to Trump you support the individual, but then the bureaucracy the Administration all of that is so painstaking just so inefficient and in all of this it doesn't really compute for me So I think we've been in there a year, right? Yeah, we have so many changes that we want to make so let's talk about a couple of policy things What about the Muslim banner the travel ban the travel ban to me was more about? Obama But it was enacted by Trump. Don't don't get me wrong I agree with the travel ban right and I agree with refugees But that's two separate things to me so what I'm trying to say is that none of these policies that are happening are Not to do with one another they're all Intertwined when we say we support the travel ban, but we also support refugees But we also want to like help them get vaccinations And we also want to do that some islands want to well don't forget We're funding the same bombs that are causing The Yemenis to have to become route there has to be a reason right so so it's so it's all it's all it's all connected Right so, so why are we bombing Yemen personally? I haven't looked into Yemen. I guess I'm missing your point Refugees you support Yes travel, ban this one, ban you support. It's not me. It's not a mother. Yes. I support a travel, ban So we can assess who's coming in. I just think it's important to contextualize like you're saying nothing happens in a vacuum Yeah, right, and I think that if we start to actually connect the dots like I'm encouraging us to do then It'll become a lot more understandable, I mean I don't believe anyway I Would like to answer your question about why we're bombing Yemen We're not palm in Yemen were bombing radical jihadists in Yemen who were killing people That's why we're bombing parts of Yemen Selectively to kill people who are doing terrible terrible things, and there's a tremendous amount of rape happening in England Taking these little girls grooming them because they feel they have the right to do we don't want that here those are things We don't want in the United States and one other thing. There's people with predatory behavior in every excuse me If I could say this and you'll get mad at me But if I could say this it's not baked into their religion There are a hundred and nine passages in the Quran where people are told to kill infidels and in Christians and Jews there's nothing like that in our Bible or in the Bhagavad-gita or in anything Buddha taught or any other religion. I'm aware of in the world until people renounce those values then They scare me I don't think so I haven't renounced any part of my religion in front of you, so I hope that you don't feel threatened by me So I'm not sure what you mean by that And I won't renounce any part of it slam the point that I'm trying to make is that you didn't really answer the question No, he did. He said the reason why we're bombing him on Yemen is to save the people because I'm assuming that in Yemen. We've Managed to keep out people like that guys remember. This is a video of a trumpet immigrants. We're mixing too much the religion Well, I think the race the Taliban yes, yes that you shouldn't question somebody's religion. I am very religious very religious and I'm not putting anything About my religion in here I'm here to talk about me as an immigrant you guys are here to talk about Donald Trump's like supporting him and yes I've learned a lot like you guys are human, too. You have values you Who would have thought you know that we would have found? Common ground and we wouldn't like hit each other right here You know because after the media portraying you guys as bad, or closest terrorist whatever right? I think the media is getting us all in a different light Yeah, I think that we're portraying ourselves in a very different light, too I mean I feel very attacked just now for my religion when I did start to talk about myself as an immigrant You don't say you kept talking about the travel, ban. It's a Muslim, but that has nothing to do with immigration It's not a Muslim But what I'm trying to just say is that no one should have to explain Muslim Christian Jewish none of the above What they are to you, but Muslims? Continuously have to defend. Not only their religion, but their humanity what I love about this country is the Diversity I just when I came here from Mexico I just loved how there was different religions different colors different people like it's amazing It's it's beautiful, and I don't I don't understand how empty of a human you have to be to discriminate someone just because of their looks, it's it's these pre-programmed thoughts in our head from just media as what I believe just blowing things out of proportion just Consistently just the outlook on Minorities or the outlook on people in certain situations is just bad once you humanize someone when you're having a conversation When I and I look past you know whatever these biases that people try to Enact on me right or that I see and I start looking at you as a person I start listening to what you're saying you really realize that it's not that different I mean we just we have different situations we have different information But we're all trying to do the best that we have I think the real interesting aspect that I guess a lot of discrimination is really about is taking this general idea of phenomenon where you can associate my case at least like Muslims Terrorists equal each other and take individuals and group them so easily with that sort of discrimination And I think that's something that we have to work towards in terms of separating ourselves from doing that Thank you. Everybody. I appreciate you All right Hey guys, thanks for watching that episode of middle ground my name is Taylor my name is Dan Please leave us a comment and let us know your thoughts on this topic We'd love to hear some discussion going on in the comments keep it friendly keep it cool We love for you guys to get involved in any way possible, so please subscribe watch more videos leave comments We live for that and see you later
As usual any post involving trump results in 3-5 people throwing temper tantrums in the comments.
They need to be defeated at the polls to be shown they are wrong. Sorry, I don't empathize or sympathize with people that voted to spite other people. Long after Trump is gone I will always look down on people that voted for him, with utter disdain. Bite me.
I know many Trump supporters, I get along with them just fine. I get into pretty philosophical debates with my coworkers, they aren’t racist, they just really hate the idea people are “cutting in line”.
I don’t agree with some of their other economic/social views, but I do see their POV.
It’s been obvious for a while now that any form of real immigration change, whether Good or bad is going to come from the republicans.
Democrats have a vested interest in keeping the status quo
Immigrants see this clearly. Nothing pisses legal immigrants more than attempts to smudge the lines between legal and illegal immigrants. The media has been pulling that shit a lot lately.