November 8thI went to bed with a heavy heart. I turned off the television logged off of my social media and tried to drown out the madness that was happening around me. I woke up the next morning and my worst fears had been confirmed. Donald J. Trump was elected to be the 45thpresident of the United States of America. This news stabbed me three ways. As a woman, as an African American, and as a child of Immigrants. The only word I can think of to describe this past year is joke. 2016 was a joke. A year I hope will be omitted from history books so I don’t have to explain to my children why such a monster was voted into office. I am honestly not surprised that the election turned out like this. For the amount of peers, family members, and friends who joked about Donald Trump wining I truly believe this is a dose of cosmic karma. If this doesn’t show you that racism, bigotry, xenophobia, homophobia, and white male supremacy doesn’t exist my advice to you would be to look at the facts.
According to exit polls, the election result seems to have been more about the clear backing of America’s white and wealthy voters for Donald Trump – including white graduates, and white female voters. So yes he did get a lot of wealthy old money and higher society types but also keep in mind he got a lot of us too. By us I mean college educated millennials. You know these people that voted for him they are your neighbors, on your sports team, your co-workers and etc. It’s hard for me to look at someone I have spent so much time with and realize that they support a racist. “Whoa whoa whoa just because I voted for trump doesn’t mean I’m racist” every Trump supporter I know on Facebook. Then what are you? Because you clearly have pledged your allegiance to a man who proposed a “Muslim ban” and surveillance of mosques, a man who labeled Mexican immigrants “rapists,” and a man who revealed how little he thought of black people by dismissing “the African Americans” as “inner city” dwellers with “nothing to lose”. You cannot tell me you support Donald Trump and are completely blind to his true feelings towards non-white males. Women especially! Donald Trump is ON TAPE bragging about grabbing women by the you-know-what but yet you proudly wear a Make America Great Again Hat out in public? Donald Trump is also going on trial for raping a 13-year-old girl. But for some reason all you Trump supporters seem to have overlooked that. Nothing about his language is coded or includes superfluous words to hide his true meaning. Everything Donald Trump has said has been spoken with no filter. With past Presidents like Reagan and Nixon they employed techniques like dog whistle politics and other coded language. But Trump said directly what was on his mind and apparently many of yours as well. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
I like to think that America has progressed (not immensely but progress is progress) far from the days of hate. But seeing the outcome of this election I now see that is not the case. As black people we need to realize the harsh reality that racism never got better it just got more hidden and insidious. But now with our new commander the face of everything that is wrong in this country we need to be prepared for the absolute worse. Yes, everyone is entitled to freedom of speech and having your opinions respected but how do you expect people to respect your opinion when your opinion disrespects someone’s very existence.
Donald Trump aims to “Make America Great Again”. Greater for whom? Definitely not anyone I identify with. I believe we are on the brink of one greatest revolutions that we will ever see in this country. The people of color in this nation are not happy. No we aren’t being sore losers because our candidate didn’t win. And no we are not trying to make something out of nothing. There are valid reasons that I believe we are on the brink of a revolution and the main one being is we demand justice and do not believe that justice will be attainable having Trump as commander and chief. The United States of America was built on the backs of slaves and Native Americans. All of whom are never thanked or recognized when we talk about “Making America Great”. So the lack of patriotism from the black community and other communities of color is not un-American or misplaced it is spot on. We are fed up and will fight to get justice in the words of Malcolm X “by any means necessary”. Hillary Clinton has her flaws don’t get me wrong I am well aware, but Clinton was the only candidate to my knowledge who acknowledge the system of institutionalized racism that our country was built on. The only candidate to dedicate her Democratic National Convention to focus on the Black Lives Matter movement. She was the only candidate who offered hope to communities of color. Hillary did indeed get a lot of minority votes (she won 88% of the black vote) but even that wasn’t enough. When you look at the proportions whites outweigh the people of color in this nation. When you compare that to the people of color who are actually allowed to participate in voting the number shrinks even more. I encourage you to read the book The New Jim Crow and you will see exactly what I mean. Lastly I also have no doubt in my mind that America was not ready for a female president. So unwilling to have a female president that they rather have a symbol of hate represent the country instead. So be on the lookout for a revolt and don’t say I didn’t warn you.
