This was a really great table talk considering the current political climate, and I’m glad GRF Sam was able to facilitate a great discussion and give us some insight through his research!

We first started the discussion on talking about the “far right” movement in Germany, and some of their campaign slogans. I think it’s interesting that the far right is not only appearing domestically in the U.S., but also elsewhere in the world as well. However, I also feel like this isn’t anything new. Throughout history, there’s always been a concept of “us versus them”, and this is no exception. I feel like people often feel like immigrants are always here to “steal their jobs” (not really the case) and the people originally there feel threatened and proceed to discriminate against them.

What I find most sad about all of this is that all humans, regardless of ethnicity, background, etc, share 99.9 percent of all their DNA. I think it’s sad that we can’t all get along and politicians continue to perpetuate the “us vs. them” narrative to garner votes.

Sam (and the other Table Talk participants) mentioned this might be due to other factors, such as race/ethnicity/economy, etc, and I totally agree–but that means that the problem is multi-faceted and there’s no easy fix to it. Whatever we do will likely displease another group of people (for example, raising minimum wage will anger others even though it helps a lot of people), and since it’s usually the rich who call the shots in America (the only people who can appeal to politicians/lobby through money), it kind of seems like a hopeless cause. I think, though, that doing nothing/complacency doesn’t help the cause either. I think it’s really important to speak up and more importantly, educate ourselves and speak up for those who cannot. There’s a lot of power in numbers.