We call the United States of America “the land of the free,” but is that really what we are now? We are a free nation, a country where people have arrived and felt the instant surroundings of peace and welcoming. Our citizens had freedoms, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press, but does that mean anything to our president now? The United States is a place home to all religions, all languages, and all people who come from different places because that’s what makes us diverse; however, we currently live in Trump’s America.

An Indian man, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, was shot in a Kansas bar because a white man, Adam Purinton, thought he was Muslim, and believed that all Muslims are terrorists and all brown skinned people believe in the same cause. Kuchibhotla lost his life because he looked like the stereotyped terrorist-brown skin, male. This man wasn’t causing any harm, he was simply at the bar with his friends when Purinton took his life. People like Purinton are toxic to this country and continue to create  a divide.

As a sixteen year old Indian girl, it is impossible for this incident not to affect me. Being a student at North Penn, I have never experienced discrimination against my race or religion, but seeing the generalizations and assumptions made against people who look like me is terrifying. I want a life where I won’t be afraid to go out and get killed for having brown skin. Just because there has been a history of Muslim terrorists doesn’t mean that all Muslims are terrorists. I’m not even Muslim, I’m Hindu, but this still touches close to home because I have Muslim friends, and other friends who have the same physical features. I don’t want to be treated differently because I have dark skin, I don’t want people to be afraid of me, and I don’t want to be afraid of anyone. I hope that the president soon learns that not all brown people are out to destroy other faiths because we do make up a decent amount of the population.

The day after President Trump was elected president, I checked my Instagram feed to see what people thought. My one childhood friend had posted a picture of her shirt with India’s flag on it. Her post was about how she wanted to wear that shirt out that day. Her dad made her change because he was afraid people would see her wearing that shirt and treat her differently or do something to her. She explained how she wasn’t afraid of anyone because that is the country where her family is from and she shouldn’t be ashamed of it. I was extremely proud of her for standing up for her country. We can’t constantly be afraid of people in this country, because this is the country our parents moved to in order to have a better life.

Can’t we live in peace again? Not just as a country, but as a world together. Why does there have to be prejudice and racism and other things that divide us from living a life of happiness? Right now, the United States is robbing us of that happiness. We need to be together at a time like this, instead of fearing people that we normally trust.

I was ecstatic to find out that Trump’s Muslim ban was lifted because it was unconstitutional. He can’t ban everyone, we have always been and are a free country. People should be allowed to enter and exit and find a better life for themselves in this country, but now other countries look more appealing. Citizens are fleeing our country because of the great disgust with Trump and the things he stands for. The U.S. is no longer the “home of the brave,” rather, “the home of the feared.”

The rights we fought to protect so many years ago seem to be losing their importance. As a free country, we’ve grown to become welcoming of all religions and cultures, but ever since Trump joined the running for presidency, the racists we thought we lost in the 70’s have reemerged and are just as racist and prejudice as before. They yell things like “go back to where you came from” but little do they know that they too have an immigrant in their family. Unless they are 100% Native American, they have immigrant blood in their family tree. So they aren’t just being cruel to immigrants, they are acting this way to people with brown skin, people who look like me.

We need to stand up for our fellow citizens. They have the same rights as the people before them, so let’s not abolish them from our country. People need to stop pushing minorities out because they are the ones that built it. We deserve to stay and feel welcome in the U.S. because if they continue this behavior, the U.S. will revert back to their isolationist ways and kick the people who matter so much to this country out.

I want to feel safe. I want to feel welcomed. I want to live a long life in this country because I am an American. I am still an American regardless of my skin color, where my parents grew up, or what language I speak at home. My family is in this country because we love America. Will America love us again?