Last week, the country was in mourning as Hillary Clinton, after winning the popular vote, lost the presidential election to Donald Trump. We mourned because our country was going to be placed in the hands of a man that spewed constant hate. We mourned because our friends, our sisters, our brothers, strangers, and ourselves were forced, from the moment the election results came through, to live in fear. We mourned because we had to all sit back and watch an overqualified, smart, capable woman lose the position to an inexperienced, irrational, and unethical man.
I went to my classes on Wednesday morning and in two of them, I sat with my professors and classmates and wept. Professors and students alike cried in fear of what the future now may hold for us. Female students, mixed students, LGBTQ+ students, all seemed to be in a state of despair.
There was to be a speaker coming to our campus on Saturday to be part of a Gender Studies Conference. He canceled because, being Indian-American, he didn’t feel as though it was safe to travel.
This isn’t normal. This isn’t OK. People shouldn’t be fearful of their country. They shouldn’t be fearful of their president.
This isn’t just a matter of fear of him, though. It’s what he’s brought out in people. Hate crimes are skyrocketing. Copying their chosen leader’s behavior, people think it’s OK to spew slurs at people, insult them, degrade them, harass them. There are cases all over social media and in the news of assault, hatred, and harassment all over the country. Whether it’s towards strangers in the street, acquaintances on college campuses, or from family over social media, people feel as though they’ve been given a free pass to act how they please. People have, because of Trump’s behavior, taken it upon themselves to tell people they aren’t worth it or don’t deserve what they have.
We aren’t upset that our favorite candidate didn’t win. We’re upset Hillary only won by a few hundred thousand. 60 million people voted for misogyny, prejudice, racism, and bigotry. 60 million people voted to oppress a majority of the United States. We're upset another woman was kicked down and the position she was highly qualified for was given to a much less qualified man. Women everywhere have to continue to believe that they will never be good enough.
So to the women who are “over” feminism and feminists and to the men who feel threatened by feminism and to the people who preach that we just don’t need it and to those who claim we’ve never had this much freedom, this is why we still fight.