Christopher Raymond is a freshman in CAS studying Computer Science. He was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
“I came to Boston about 7 years ago. It was my first time on an airplane so that was an experience. The transition for me wasn’t that bad because I left when I was 11 and I didn’t have that much going on. For my dad, leaving, his friends were back there, his life was back there. Most of my life is here.
When I tell people that I’m Haitian, it’s like they view me differently. It’s instantly different because they start asking questions. They start making me feel like [I’m] different. They start poking at a bunch of things that should be irrelevant. Sometimes they just poke at the wrong thing at the wrong time. Someone just simply asked me ‘Did I run around naked because I didn’t have clothes?’ It was at a pretty sincere time for me because it happened right after the earthquake and I still had family back there.
I feel like [Donald Trump] needs to go. I don’t understand how he got up there in the first place. I’m happy he became president, at least, because now we know. Now we know that there are a lot of [expletive] people out there who still feel the same way that most people felt about 100 years ago. I used to tell my parents that well, it’s ok, they changed, we’re so much better now, and [then] there’s that one fricking kid in my class who wears a Make America Great Again hat. Some people still feel the same way and a lot of people still [expletive] hate me. Because I’m black.
I am guilty until proven innocent, not the other way.
I think [the president’s immigration policy] is really [expletive] up. I feel like it’s really unfair to most people. Some people like me and my family, we came here for a better future. I’m just saying that there are a lot of people who do come here illegally, and some of them do end up doing the bad things that the stereotypes portray but not all of them are like that, some of them actually come here for a better future and some are actually working hard. It’s really unfair. Other countries are able to stop illegal immigration and take refugees in. It’s open arms, it’s so easy to do.
I wanted to go places. Now I’m scared of going places and not being able to come back. I should be fine, on paper. A lot of things work on paper, but in practice they don’t work.”
