Column: Discrimination in politics

by Kusum Aryal

Too often we look at a political candidate through the lens of gender and color. People should be judged based on what they are capable of.  

In my experience, skin color does affect the way someone sees you. For my freshman year of high school, I attended a school where the majority of the student body was white. On a day to day basis, I was asked, “Why are you showing your hair?” or “Were you a part of 9/11?” I learned to ignore these remarks, yet it still has impacted some of the things that have gone on in my life.  

 At the national level, we’ve seen people of color being attacked.

 Even though Barack Obama was successful, he still went through discrimination and crude remarks based upon his race.

Obama was also attacked by the birther movement. Obama had to disclose his birth certificate because of this.

Being a woman in politics is just as intimidating as being a different skin color in politics.

Fox reporter Megyn Kelly confronted Trump about the belligerent way he talks to women. In return, President Trump posted debasing comments about Ms. Kelly on Twitter.

“Wow, @megynkelly really bombed tonight. People are going wild on twitter! Funny to watch.” Following that tweet, he wrote, “I really enjoyed the debate tonight even though the @FoxNews trio, especially @megynkelly, was not very good or professional!”

In the future, I don’t want to be targeted based on what my skin color is or what my gender is. I want to be judged based upon my abilities.