Why Children Are Afraid of Donald Trump

After the election, newspapers and news services were filled with stories about children crying and suffering anxiety and distress over the election of Donald Trump as President.  Many adults may have thought this to be an over-reaction.  But we're talking about our youngest citizens, who have the sometimes disarming and sometimes disquieting tendency to speak the truth without the convenient filters adults use to soften the harshness of reality.  Why would kids harbor such fear?  There's a simple reason.

The generation that's now in primary schools is approximately half minority.  By 2020, children under 18 will be majority minority.  https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-tps16.html When Trump blew a fuse over a racial category, a religion, or an ethnic group, the blast hit perhaps up to half these kids in a very personal way.  And when Trump delved into misogynistic ranting about women, a partially different half of this generation was directly impacted.  They've been raised to believe that girls and women are worthy, and deserving of dignity and respect.  The specter of a boorish pig in the White House flies in the face of everything that today's parents and schools try to teach.   And remember also that large numbers of white children believe in diversity and respectfulness for all.  They're more colorblind than the Boomer Generation.  Many of their good friends aren't white, and they cherish and value their friends.

So, it would seem that Donald Trump, with his hateful cacophony, has likely frightened and offended over half of today's children one way or another.  As they grow older, these childhood fears may well morph into anger and a desire for change.  By the 2040s, America as a whole will be majority minority.  Today belongs to the Republican Party.  But its victory may have sown the seeds for its demise.