BY WALTER CANADY III

This week America said farewell to the first African American president in United States history. Reflecting back on the election and reelection of President Barack Obama, it held some type of growth and aspiration for not only other African Americans, but the rest of our fellow Americans. Our nation has made a persistent effort to progress in the opposite direction of our history in relation to race association. Him being president not only was a paradigm shift for that vision but also was a favorite for succeeding President George Bush.

With all this being said, for those of us who are 18 and younger President Obama has been the only president we can firmly remember for a vast majority of our childhood and adolescent years. Now that this era is at its end and we are stepping into a new situation with president-elect Donald Trump.  It is a bittersweet  feeling for our generation. Bittersweet because we have to acknowledge and respect the history that has taken place but also in some way we feel bitter about the person that is going to take over presidency.

Many Americans, even outside our generation, feel as if they were not a constituent in this election. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote over Donald Trump by nearly 2.9 million votes, but because of electoral votes it lead to the election of Trump as the 45th president. With social media being a big part of our generation, we have definitely expressed our disenchantment through that mechanism with many different memes, public posts and farewell videos. The fear in the reshaping of our country’s president has even been exuded into some celebrities. Our generation  for the most part are used to having a leader that we adore and respect for his significance in the change in history. Now, we are entering an age where most feel like this president-elect will be known for being publicly disliked and hated. It will be interesting to see what Trump will achieve during his time of presidency. Hopefully he can prove himself to be better than what many of our generation fear he could be.