Dear Future President,

Hi, my name is Seanna Scott. My letter to you is about the need to end Xenophobia. I’m guessing you already know what Xenophobia is; Xenophobia- The extreme fear or dislike of marginalized peoples. Personally, I think that no one should be discriminated against because of their religion, sexuality, nationality, or race. I believe that around 9/11 is when the xenophobia worsened, fear of the unknown started to develop due to the terror attacks by radical muslims. Muslim and Arab hate crimes started increasing; ““I’m going to go out and shoot some towel-heads,” were the words of a self-confessed patriot who murdered a man he mistook for a Muslim in revenge for 9/11. His victim was a Sikh named Balbir Singh Sodhi. His turban and beard made him a target. Yet, the sad irony remains that none of the nineteen hijackers had either.” (excerpt from Huffington Post.) You cannot blame all Muslims or Arabs for the crimes of just a few.

Xenophobia can be targeted towards anyone but the people who suffer the most are: Muslims, POC, members of the LGBT+ community, people who practice Judaism, and Arab men and women. Any sort of hate, fear, or crime targeted against any of these people is considered Xenophobia.Hate circles are formed by Xenophobia for example; Over the summer in Orlando, FL a man named Omar Mateen who was a self-proclaimed radical Muslim killed 41 members of the LGBT+ community. The Pulse Nightclub was an LGBT+ club. The massacre was based on hate towards the community. Just a month ago the Mosque that Omar Mateen practiced at was set on fire by a Jewish man. An example of Xenophobia on a larger scale would be the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a genocide in which Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany and its supporters killed about six million Jewish men and women.

What I’ve realized with varying perspectives of Xenophobia is that it differs based on where people were raised, their religion, or a certain incident that triggered the hate or fear, etc. A few examples of this could be:

An American man loses his job because the company moves to Mexico, soon after he develops a hatred for all Mexican people.

-A male or female gets raped by a person of color, their fear of that race grows.

-A person was raised in a very conservative household and is taught to fear people who don’t look like them such as POC, Muslims, etc.

-A person is raised in a family that believes you chose to be gay so they could possibly grow up to be prejudice as well.

-A fear or hate of any community can be developed at such a young age, it’s hard to unlearn it.

To attempt to fix the issue of Xenophobia, I feel like it needs to be talked about more often, and on a bigger platform. I hope to get to a place where Xenophobia is talked about in school and it is a known issue. Some larger platforms could be youtube or even your voice. I hope that this letter caused you to think about this issue, I’d really like to change the way people view each other.

Sincerely,

Seanna Scott.