Honestly, I’d rather not write about the political environment.  I’d much rather write about baseball, League of Legends, or semis full of food collapsing on the highway.  But the political environment is something that is fresh on everyone’s mind, it’s all that’s being talked about anywhere and everywhere, and as much as I want to claim ambivalence, to me it’s simply unavoidable.  Especially when the hot button being pressed over and over again is the topic of racism.

When the election was declared over and you-know-who was anointed the victor, there was a tremendous wet blanket of dread that was draped upon liberal America.  It was no secret that life was going to be different for those in very particular minority groups; namely Latinos, African-Americans and Muslims, along with a pessimism that the lives of females and those in the LGBTQ criteria would have to start considering playing some defense, from the world, despite the fact that they really shouldn’t have to.

I definitely felt empathy and concern over those in the Latino and African-American camps, because the crosshairs would definitely be focused on those groups, but I couldn’t help but wonder just what was fate was going to befall for those in other minority groups, namely Asian-slash-Pacific Islanders, for obvious reasons.

A part of me thought Asians might be able to slip through the cracks, because historically that’s what they’ve always done.  Sure, the shitty drivers enrage even the most passive of pacifists, but typically immigrant Asians are the people that do your dry cleaning, run convenience stores, sell you liquor, operate your takeout restaurants, groom your nails and fix your HVAC problems.  They’re often in the background, running tasks of convenience, that old money white people simply aren’t associated with doing.

However, there’s the other part of me that figured because Asian people are also not white, like Latinos, African-Americans, those from the Middle East and anyone else with skin that isn’t white, they’re just as subject to the discrimination of emboldened white supremacy that has coincidentally risen with the election of Donald Trump.  Asians are as easy targets for harassment as any other minority, especially those who are immigrants, with less grasp of the English language, who are often times more meek and timid than white Americans, much less emboldened white Americans.

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