Home can be an uncomfortable place to be when family members clash because of opposing political views, especially following Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s almost two-year-long battle for presidency. Considering the political carnage of the 2016 election cycle, many New School students — like the individuals featured here — may now see their loved ones in a newly negative light.
Haley Bolen, undecided sophomore at Eugene Lang
“Even though my parents do not support [Trump], home is still a tricky thing to talk about,” Bolen said. She voted for Bernie Sanders in the primaries and for Secretary Clinton on Election Day as a California absentee, and said she has been labeled a “liberal crybaby” by hometown friends, many of whom support the former New York businessman. “I grew up in a very conservative, Republican, white community, and a lot of my peers viewed my protesting and my speaking out against the election as whining and weird and ‘super liberal feminist’, as if [that] is a negative thing to be.”
Outraged over white supremacy and white privilege, Bolen vehemently acknowledges that racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and Islamophobia pervasively exist. A majority of her extended family members, who are also Trump loyalists, do not share her perspective.
“Looking at my extended family, it’s disappointing to see parents who have daughter[s], and who have nieces, support such disgusting misogynistic words from a rapist, and [thus] are invalidating the sexism that they will face in their lifetime,” Bolen said. “They will always be [my] family, but personally I cannot respect anyone who supports what [Trump] stands for… When the situation is brought up, I calmly and respectfully explain all of the deplorable things about him, and express my lack of respect for not only him, but those who chose to allow that type of behavior in this country.”
Bolen’s interactions with her discriminatory relatives make her feel so “invalidated and disrespected” that she has since ceased all unnecessary communication with them.
Grace Kenney, junior studying journalism & design at Eugene Lang
Despite being raised in a conservative Christian household in New Jersey, Kenney chose to vote for Clinton. She said her parents and three of her siblings voted for the Republican nominee for various reasons, including the fact that they wanted to remain loyal to their party and agreed with his economic policies.
“There are some really bad people out there who voted for Trump and support him, but I don’t think we can generalize half the country as threats against security… If all you’ve ever known is a conservative background, it is so hard to change your opinion,” Kenney said. “Just because a woman voted for Trump doesn’t mean she can’t be a feminist… Some people also don’t have anyone around them to challenge their views, so there’s no reason to see the opposite side.”
Attending The New School may have opened Kenney’s mindset to more progressive ideals, thus prompting her to vote Democratic rather than for her family’s candidate of choice. Still, she said she refrains from discussing politics openly with her family.
“I have to separate politics, opinions, and people,” Kenney said. “If I believe that anyone who voted for Trump is racist, homophobic, and delusional, I wouldn’t be able to go home.”
Oriana Niño, senior studying international affairs at Milano
“It’s weird to see how bilateral politics are in America,” said Niño, who was born in Venezuela and has lived in Mexico and Canada. She has not stayed in the same city for more than three years since she was eight, and describes herself as a “third culture kid” whose “identity is kind of messy.”
“I have been looking for that ‘home’ for many years,” she said. “After the election, the United States does not feel welcoming.”
Niño lives in Brooklyn with four roommates who she describes as being “incredibly liberal”. She has been dating her boyfriend, a Long Island-native, for almost two years.
He and his family members voted for Trump, because, she said, they “expressed deep repulsion towards Hillary Clinton” and liked the businessman’s economic outlook.
“I am the South American and I have been able to find middle ground with [my boyfriend],” she said. “But my roommates and boyfriend, who belong to the same country, haven’t.”
Nevertheless, Niño is still uncomfortable with her boyfriend’s and his family’s decision.
“I couldn’t believe that all these people who know me so well believed that it’s okay to call all Mexicans rapist[s]… I felt like with their vote, they were telling me that I wasn’t welcome in this country,” she said. “When I came to New York, I thought that this was the place where I would finally belong… I saw all of the diversity, and figured that in a country created by ‘immigrants,’ one more immigrant would fit in easily. But to my surprise it is a country filled with stereotypes, misjudgments, [and] divisions that I had never seen before.”
Illo by Alex Gilbeaux