I know you are not racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic , Islamophobic, or xenophobic . I know you don't think that sexual assault is okay, that mocking a disabled person is acceptable, or that hate speech is valid. I know you love me, a black female immigrant. I know you would defend my brother, a mentally disabled black boy. I know that you are a loving person, a kind soul, but I cannot understand why you voted for a rich man who promised violence and hatred.
I know that the government has failed you, that the hope President Obama promised did not change your life. I can see why you wanted to send politicians a message that you are tired of the bullshit that was fed to you on a silver spoon. I can see how you felt that the world was changing too fast, that the core of the America you knew was fading. I know that what you wanted an outsider, someone who hadn't been involved in politics before, someone who hadn't already been tainted, someone who told it like it is.
But what you got was a rich man who never struggled. A man who was born into an empire, one who dd not begin from scratch. You choose the man who stood for racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia , Islamophobia and xenophobia. You elected the man who mocked a disabled person, told me that I had "nothing left to lose", labeled an entire race as rapist and burglars, an entire religion as terrorist, and won with hate.
Perhaps you weren't voting for him, but against Clinton. Maybe you were exhausted by the countless scandals involving the emails and Benghazi.
Instead you choose the man who has a fraud trial for Trump University this month. One who owns many businesses will soon be making trade deals. Someone who has multiple women claiming that he sexually assaulted them, and then threatened to sue the very same women, will soon be sworn in as president.
Maybe you think I, and the others like me, are being dramatic. That he just said those things, he doesn't believe them. That we need to give him a chance to prove us wrong.
Whether or not he believes those things is not the question on hand. The fact that he not only said it, but ran an entire campaign with it is enough. The fear comes not from him, but the people who he validated, those who are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic, and xenophobic. And while the president alone does not have much power, he will have a Republican congress, and soon will have the Supreme Court as well.
Still, I understand that politics is a game of sacrifice. You choose the candidate with the most qualities you like and ignore the ones you don't. You have to sacrifice some to get the things you want. This time you choose to sacrifice me.
And that is what hurts the most. That my life, the life of those I love and look like me, were not as important to you as something else was. That despite knowing, and understanding, everything he rode on, you were willing to over look it. That is why I don't think our friendship will recover, because at the end of the day you were willing to put me on the chopping block.
I will always love you, you will always have a piece of me no one else will ever know, but I cannot be friends with someone who did not think my safety was as important as a wall that will never be built.
-Someone who has nothing left to lose.
