I am angry. I am angry simply because I exist in a place where white privilege is as bright and bold as the sun. I am angry, because my black life and my queer life are not valued. Or maybe my black life and my queer life are not put on the same pedestal as white lives. White lives always have and always will matter. They’ve mattered, because no matter how far white people climb and claw their way to the top there’s always the bloodied, and bruised black people who they’ve pushed and shoved to get there. Donald Trump is an example; he’s claimed that black men and women support him, and that they want nothing more than to “make America great again,” but how could we support a man who thinks of a great America as a America where black people are spat on, chained up, and hung from trees? My black life does not matter, and it never did. It never mattered to the white men and women who voted for Trump, and it never mattered to the white men and women who wrote in foolishness and treated this election as a joke. Of course to them it was a joke, and was another Tuesday that would not affect their lives one day, or two weeks from now. To them I am another black woman whose culture they mock, whose men they fetishize, and who they see as nothing but another threat to their perfect white life that I am not included in.

My queer life has never mattered, because men like Mike Pence see me as a fag or a dyke. He sees my love for all genders as a threat to his perfect heteronormative society. He sees my love for women as a fetish that he pleasures himself to at night, but in the day time he judges, ridicules, and spits on. He sees my sexuality as something that can be changed through electrocution and conversion camps. He sees me going through emotional, mental, and physical pain as a “method” that would better America. Mike Pence sees me as a threat as something that needs to be destroyed or changed, so that white America can prosper. So that white America can have their own version of a free country. One where they are free to state their hateful, spiteful, and racist opinions, and one where they are allowed to belittle and bully races. In reality, a vote for Donald Trump, and a vote for Mike Pence was white America trying to silence the voices of people of color. They wanted us to stop protesting, to stop fighting for an America where all people are equal, and have equal opportunities. They wanted us to simply submit to the idea that we have no rights, and in order to survive we must allow them to walk upon us. We must allow them to treat us as if we have no mind, voice, or emotion of our own. They want to control how we should feel about certain events, and they want to control how we respond to certain events. They want us to be as peaceful as our “ancestors” were, and they say that we should not riot. They want us to control our anger, and not allow them to see how angry we are; how our anger burns and burns in our hearts, and our souls, and how it consumes us in a blind rage of fiery passion.

White America is like anthrax. You do not have to touch it, but simply be in the same space, the same vicinity as it, and you will be poisoned. They are a poison that offers fake condolences such as “You’ll get through this” or “We’ve had worse presidents” as they laugh behind our backs because they have always been able to use their whiteness and privilege as a cloak that shields them from all the damage that presidents have done in the past. Bill Clinton’s crime bill sentenced many black males to life behind bars for crack cocaine while white men were able to overdose on powder cocaine while no one batted an eye. White men in power and white privilege have caused black men to be seen as thugs, drug dealers, and lowlifes, while they do the same thing and it’s seen as a “recreational activity.” It’s disgusting, but it’s always been deeply embedded in our history, hidden by our history books as the white man is always the hero, and is the structure that created our America. It is true that America has been founded by white men, but it has also been destroyed by those same hands. It has shifted throughout time it’s meanings becoming blurred and rewritten by men who were only in interested in how “religious freedom” and “equality for all” could benefit them and them only. So the poison that is white America has always flowed through our country's veins, but now we as people of color are starting to realize that poison-filled past will create a poison filled future it we do not become catalyst for the future.

We must create change, because sitting in our own anger, sadness, and frustration will not fix anything. If we are silent we have given them what they want. We must be loud, and protest. We must create noise, and we must riot. We will make our voices herd, and we have to show them that we will not stand for a President whose only goal is to create an America that is not free for anyone but him, and people who think like him. We need to ban together, and use our American rights to show them who has the true power. It is us, the people, who have the power to fight our oppressive system, and truly make America great again.