The presidential election and its results struck a chord with many Americans. Some Detroit Cristo Rey students say they are disappointed by the country’s vote, while others say neither candidate represented them. But the students’ biggest takeaway from this election? Voting matters.
Detroit Cristo Rey students shared their thoughts on the election results at the #StudentsSpeak campaign last month. The campaign was started by Teaching Tolerance, a website for educators passionate about diversity, equity, and justice.
The campaign calls educators to help their students process the 2016 election by asking students to write their advice to the new president on a sheet of paper, upload a non-identifiable photo of the advice, and hashtag it with Students Speak.
Students’ advice to President-elect Donald Trump ranged from addressing gender income inequality to race tolerance. Students lined up to photograph their signs reading “Love Trumps Hate,” “Peace,” and more in order to share their thoughts on social media.
At Cristo Rey, the conversation touched on multiple aspects of the election, some positive, some negative.
Ultimately students had the opportunity to spark conversation with others and engage in conversation on the election.
Nicolas Perales, a freshman at Cristo Rey, said the election let him down. “I was more disappointed that people were foolish enough to vote for him. I thought people were better than that,” he said. It “just shows that you can’t really trust anybody.”
Other students accepted the results, with a different outlook.
“I think they were both interesting candidates,” said Isabelle Lopez, a freshman. “I am happy that Trump won, though, because I don’t feel like Hillary was the right woman candidate. And if she would have done a bad job they wouldn’t give another woman a chance.”
Estrella Escutia, a freshman, agreed. “She didn’t really represent me as a woman. I’m not necessarily glad that Donald Trump won, but I wouldn’t be happy if Hillary Clinton won either.”
“A lot of things that he said got to me. Not even necessarily me, but to my dad as well regarding deporting Mexicans." added Estrella.
Other students blamed the system this election. Angela Martinez, a senior at Cristo Rey, said she was frustrated by lack of voting in the city and the oppression of the minority vote.
“All of us were oppressed,” she said. “The system is oppressing us, it was made broken on purpose.”
Despite the challenges many students faced during the election cycle, some spread positivity to other students.
The election “just makes us think of ways we can prevent these situations in the future for our generation,” said Mayra Garcia, senior.
As students wrote their advice to Trump, one central idea was unanimous: they would make it to the polls every year after their 18th birthday.
