Nspa 2016 election reactions

2016 election reactions This past week, the ODYSSEY Media Group visited Indianapolis, Indiana for the National Scholastic Press Association 2016 fall conference. While there, members spoke to people from across the country to gauge their reactions to the 2016 presidential election.

Photo by Karla Dougan “Just the other day at my school, there was a Trump supporter. As soon as he got word that Trump was going in the office, he started with the derogatory names. He was like, ‘Oh hey, look at you. Oh, what’s that? Weave in your hair?’ This is all mine by the way, like, ‘No, this is not weave.’ He started being rude out of nowhere for no reason. He was calling me a n****r. With all those things that (Trump) said, I don’t understand why we didn’t see that he could be bad for America.”

Kierra Graham, Indianapolis, Ind.

Photo by Karla Dougan

“A lot of it’s disbelief. A lot of it is disappointment. A lot of it is WTF? People in my town are saying, ‘You know, we voted for Hillary, we did this,’ but we can’t take comfort in that because that’s just our little county. We don’t live in isolation. I will do something, but I haven’t decided what it’s going to be.

How could this happen?”

Alan Swank, Athens, Oh.

Photo by Karla Dougan "You have women 70, 80, 90 years old who had the opportunity to see the first woman president and now those approaching the end of their lives may never see it happen. It’s less than 100 years since women had the right to vote, so that’s been the most disturbing.

One of the reasons is, I have three granddaughters. They come over probably three out of every four Sundays for dinner. We’ll probably have a family conversation Sunday evening and rather than tell, (we will) ask and see how they respond because the last thing I want to do is to indoctrinate children into belief. They need to develop their own thoughts and way of thinking. (My granddaughter), Ava, was really disappointed. They don’t watch a lot of TV, but gosh, all you got to do is catch one clip of a racist or homophobic or sexist comment. Even at 7 years old, kids know that’s not right."

Alan Swank, Athens, Ohio.

Photo by Karla Dougan “I’m disappointed because I’m a Hispanic girl and I was born in Mexico, and throughout this whole election, I really expected a lot more from citizens. Knowing that Trump is the president was just a really big disappointment. Like I woke up that morning and I expected Clinton to be the winner and I woke up and saw Trump was the president, and I looked it up and was like, ‘Wait, what? No, this is not a real thing.’

So, I think it’s just really a step back for women and immigrants and Hispanics and black people and just everyone.”

Emilia Fuentes, Decatur, Ga.

“After Donald Trump was elected president on Wednesday, my school did a walk out and there was rumor that it was going to happen, so there was law enforcement all around the school and there was a bunch of police. So then kids, around lunch I think, got up and then walked to our local college, (University of California, Santa Barbara), and a bunch of kids spoke about it and were giving speeches and talking and it was like this huge rally kind-of, but it wasn’t violent at all. So, it was really interesting because so many kids were so upset about it that everyone just went and left and just walked off campus.”

Annika Linquist, Goleta, Calif.

Photo by Delia Adamson “I was very surprised Trump won, if we are being completely honest. I really thought that Hillary was going to win, but Trump just came out of nowhere and took the lead and won. I mean, I really liked Bernie, but the thing is Hillary was lesser of two evils, I believed, so I guess I wanted Hillary compared to Trump, but I mean you can’t always get what you want. A lot of people have mixed reactions, but at the same time there is the checks and balances system, and (Trump) can not be a fascist ruler and rule over us with an iron fist because we still have checks and balances to control him. So, I think we will be fine in the next four years.”

Jeremy Litberg, Chicago, Ill. Photo by Olivia Ripps

“I could not be in any way for Trump because of just the views he has on stuff and the fact that his running mate promotes gay conversion therapy and I’d prefer not to be shocked to be straight. I identify as gay, so it scares me and I’m afraid for what’s going to come next. If he goes through with some of the things he’s saying during his campaign, I’m afraid to see how the nation will go after it. I know I’m planning on going to (University of Kansas) next year for journalism, but depending on what happens, I might have to see if I can find a college out of the country because if he follows the way of his campaign, I can’t live in this country.”

Matthew Canedy, Augusta, Kan.

Photo by Zoe Peterson

Photo by Karla Dougan “Yeah, he won, but as a country, we have to get behind him now because he’s in control, whether you like it or not. I think, honestly, either way both the candidates should not have been on the ballot. I think we all need to kind of get over it because if we still are all sad that Hillary lost, I mean, yeah, it is sad, but if we don’t come together under who we have now, s*** is never going to get done. As a country, we need to mature and be adults about it, find solutions and work even harder to make change”.

Jack McBride, Indianapolis, Ind.

Photo by Andrew Caldwell

“I have two sisters, they're twins.

We’re super close, so when I heard about the election, the first thing I thought of was them. I’m really disappointed in the country, but I think that we can try to make the best of a terrible situation, and I think that there are people who are really passionate about doing something about it. My sisters told me at our high school this morning that a lot of people didn’t stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, which makes a lot of sense to me. I’m probably going to do the same thing when I get back. Yesterday on the bus when we were coming to Indianapolis, the mood was very somber, like people were crying. I don’t know how to make sense of it. I just think a lot of people are gonna be scared, people are gonna feel hopeless, but I also think it’s going to kind of put this drive and fire in our country and in young people that we haven’t seen yet. And that’s really exciting to me.”

Alia Carlton, Decatur, Ga.

“I remember sitting there and looking at the state of Iowa, the state that basically gave Obama the presidency and that was so for African-American rights, and they were so for the movement, and I remember watching it go red and thinking to myself, ‘How did this happen?’ ‘Where did all of this come from?’ I was honestly just in a state of shock. I did not know what this was such a big, prevalent issue and that it was of this scale and that so many people felt this way. I was honestly just in a state of shock, I didn’t even know what to think at the time.”

Omar Ahmed, Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Photo by Karla Dougan

“Before, I could look at people with that blindness, with that ignorance bliss of, ‘Oh, you accept me, ‘cause we’re in America and everyone in America accepts everyone, so you must accept me, I must be a part of you guys.’ But now when I walk down the street and I look at someone, it’s now more of like, ‘Do you accept me?’ ‘Do you not like me?’ ‘I haven’t said anything to you yet, but are you already pre-conceivably not happy with me?’

I’m scared of not being accepted anymore and I’m also scared for me and my family ‘cause my family is a family that didn’t grow up here. They all grew up in India and moved here, so they don’t really understand American politics and what the election means because they’re not from here. It’s just not in their nature to understand what this means. I just fear for them and the fact that they’re going to receive a backlash and they’re going to receive hate, and they won’t know why.”

Omar Ahmed, Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Photo by Karla Dougan

Photo by Karla Dougan “I want to become a filmmaker, I want to make movies. So, I feel like in my way, the best way to elicit change is to make movies and to make people feel a different way. So, I do want to make a change, I do want to really show people my perspective. I don’t want to make a change in the sense of like, ‘Let’s start an organization and go up in arms and really change the world.’ I want to make a change through making people feel a certain way. I feel like if you can really connect with the person and change them emotionally, you’ve changed them through life. It’s very easy for me to change you through fear, which is what Donald Trump has done, that’s all he’s done. His entire campaign has been through fear and fear pandering and getting America to be fearful, and that fear has caused change. I don’t want to do that, I want to change people emotionally. I want to make a movie that will get people to love again and will get people to get rid of all this hate that’s going on.”

Omar Ahmed, Manhattan Beach, Calif.

“I think how much Trump gets done will depend on who he decides to surround himself with.

That could end up being okay if he’s got someone else who’s feeding him whatever he needs to say. I mean, parts of his acceptance speech were okay.

That was a long way from anything he said on the campaign trail. It was almost like half-way normal.”

Amy Stiefel, Westchester, Ohio.

Photo by Zoe Peterson

(Left) “I think history repeats itself and right now, it’s repeating itself. It’s sad. I don’t really know how to think about it. Trump is president and you can’t do anything about it. I just hope arguing can stop and we can just get through the four years. ” Ethan Coffee, Los Angeles, Calif.

(Right) “(Trump) says all these horrible things about women and certain things like building a wall and all that.

And it’s really, really shocking because yeah, maybe you don’t support that or condone that, but if you’re voting for him, it means that you’re agreeing with his ideas and that, to me, is just shocking.

That half the county would want someone like him as president.”

Photo by Julie Alpaugh Matt Yam, Los Angeles, Calif.

Photo by Karla Dougan

Photo by Zoe Peterson “My husband said it was like voting for chaos. You’re either voting for chaos or voting for something you don’t like, but you know you’re going to get. And I think that’s why for the rest of the House and Congress, I voted totally Republican because I figured since I didn’t like either candidate. If Hillary got elected, then I knew that the house and the senate were going to be controlled by Republicans, and so it would be even. But if Trump got it, the Republicans wouldn’t back him anyway, so it wouldn’t matter.”

Lisa Mullins, Westchester, Ohio.

“Riots have happened, and I understand that because there are a lot of angry people, but, ‘Did they vote?’ is my first question. I just hope that (Trump) will reverse, or tone down some of the things that he says and start to be more accepting and he will include everybody when he makes some of his decisions. I will tell you, I was optimistically surprised by (Trump’s) acceptance speech.

I thought that he was semi-gracious and it wasn’t all me-me-me, and, ‘I did this by myself’.’ I mean, he really sold me on -- okay, maybe we’re gonna be okay.”

Jim McGonnell, New Smyrna Beach, Fla.

Photo by Zoe Peterson

Compilation and layout by Karla Dougan Stories by Zoe Peterson, Julie Alpaugh, Johanna Hall, Katy Mayfield, Karla Dougan