In the three previous essays, I wrote about dreaming. Bobby Kennedy would be proud of me following his example. I have had dreams about Ti Ti for years. I’ve written about her being a clone of me. The parallels between the two of us are obvious. On my second trip to Myanmar to be with my family, we talked about Ti Ti going to college. She lived in a nice middle-class community and school system near Inle Lake. I lived in an identical type of community in Pennsauken, NJ. However, to get into college, both of us needed to deal with being above average in the regular schools that we attended. I went to Mt. Lebanon, and Ti Ti went to the DNNA Private School in Taunggyi. Both schools were exclusively college preparatory schools. We both started in regular schools and were above-average intellectually.

Additionally, we both felt the educational and financial dichotomy that we might not be as good academically or monetarily as we wished or hoped. When I attended school in Mt. Lebanon just before junior high, I learned two things: I was dumb and poor. Mt. Lebanon was the 19th-best school in the country and the wealthiest community in Western Pennsylvania.

Ti Ti had written about some of her concerns about her ability at her college preparatory school. I never miss a teaching moment. I asked Ti Ti a simple question. I wanted Ti Ti to grade her academic acumen. Using the grading standard of teachers: 70-79% C, 80-89% B, and 90-100% A, I asked her what grade she would give herself. Ti Ti responded quickly and said 80%. My response was beyond the pale. It hurt me that Ti Ti was suffering as I did at Mt. Lebanon.

Ti Ti did well at DNNA and was accepted at Gusto University in Yangon. At that time, COVID became a word that everyone in the world knew meant sickness or death. After COVID receded a bit, Myanmar faced another military coup. Because of both COVID and the coup, Ti Ti took classes online at Gusto. She also took an online class from me, where I taught and aced the class along with two other gals in the States.

Beyond being a proud grandfather, the family and I talked about Ti Ti coming to the States and living with me in Crown Point while going to college. She applied to the US Embassy for a student visa. Her first interview was conducted by a female embassy staff member. However, a male staff member was also present.

Midway through the interview, he instructed the interviewer to turn off the taping of the interview. Ti Ti wrote to me that he insisted that the interviewer not grant Ti Ti a student visa. However, Ti Ti was told to try again if she wanted. Ti Ti the second time, and the male staff member was the interviewer. He told Ti Ti that she didn’t qualify, but she could try again. The third time, the same person did the interview, and again Ti Ti was rejected.

Each time, I asked Ti Ti to email me the conversation during the three interviews. Ti Ti couldn’t grasp why he didn’t like her, other than that she was Asian. I wrote to the Head of Mission in Yangon; they haven’t had an ambassador for over a decade. I wanted to talk with her regarding Ti Ti’s treatment during the three interviews.

The Head of Mission responded that she was briefed regarding my granddaughter. Well, her briefing was done by the gatekeeper of the embassy. She never mentioned my letter and all the documents regarding classes at Gusto, recommendations, and copies of emails that To Ti reported regarding the three interviews. The gatekeeper told the head of the embassy what the gatekeeper and the male interviewer wanted her to know.

The basis of this article isn’t about Ti Ti not getting a student visa in the future. The embassy won’t give her one. Period. And besides, she will soon be graduating from Gusto in a couple of months with a Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Computer Systems Engineering. That means that she will continue in computational linguistics, especially to help minority languages like Burmese better understand AI. It’s something that she truly cares about.

However, what this essay is about is racism. An all-white embassy staff has issues with non-whites in Myanmar. Myanmar is an Asian country.

However, the embassy is merely a small dot in the vast ocean of racism in America. Ti Ti wanted to get a visitor’s visa to spend the Christmas holiday with Ginger and me. However, Trump has put more restrictions on these 19 countries, which are all non-white countries. Look at the list of countries: Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. They are blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Africans, or they are Muslim countries.

Trump wants to reexamine all the Green Cards that have been granted to citizens from the 19 countries. In Truth Social, Trump wrote that he would “permanently suspend all immigration to third-world countries so that the US system can be fully restored.” I haven’t read too much about Turkmenistan attempting to destroy America.

In addition, Trump will stop subsidizing non-citizens of the United States and will not allow immigrants to become citizens of America. Trump asserts, “We will deport all foreigners who are a burden on the public or a security threat and incompatible with Western civilization.”

The translation of that comment is, unless you are white, we don’t want you. Now, if you are a white, Christian nationalist, you are welcome.

---

These are two excellent videos related to Trump’s additional ban on people from third-world countries.

This one is of Willie Geist and Kristen Welker discussing Trump’s new bans.

The second is an interview with an immigration lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai.