Recorded from Salisbury, Maryland, 2021.

This snapshot was gathered by the Peale in conjunction with the Maryland Voices initiative at Maryland Humanities, specifically to supplement the "Voices and Votes: Democracy in America" traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program. This collection, made up of stories of first-time voters between the ages of 18 and 24, showcases the experiences of young people as they wrestled with the 2020 presidential election, issues around social justice, the environment, immigration, and the pandemic. The full collection of stories is available at www.museumonmainstreet.org.

Balil Chaudry (00:00): My name is Balil Chaudry. I'm a senior at Salisbury University. I grew up in Brooklyn and Salisbury, Maryland. I was in Brooklyn until I was 10 years old and then I moved down here for the rest of my life, basically. Then I stayed here for college as well. It's an interesting mix because I got to live in both the city, more [inaudible 00:00:25] vibe and also Salisbury, which is a really small town. I got to see the disparity and both aspects of America.

Balil Chaudry (00:33): For example, a lot of things that brought me to the polls was everything that was going on over Black Lives Matter, problems with immigration. A lot of the things that the previous president had done over the past few years that really deeply divided the country and I felt like a lot of my cousins from back home... Before, a lot of them just looked at America as this great place, but then over the past four years, it was more of them teasing me that I was in America.

Balil Chaudry (01:09): It's hard to pinpoint just a specific issue because a lot of them do play a role. But overall, I think the best way to explain it is, in my eyes, America should be for the people. We're all a big community. It's supposed to be a giant melting pot of different cultures. We should learn to love and respect each other.

Asset ID: 2021.03.06.h