In spite of everything that’s happened in the past week, I will always proud to be an American, and the reason for that is simple. Donald Trump does not represent the United States in any way shape or form. His values, his insults, his beliefs are not the America I know. Call me naïve, but I believe, as our founders did, in a united and just country. Instigating violence at rallies and insulting African Americans, Muslims, Latinos, people with disabilities, women, and the LGBTQIA community has caused the greatest divide our country has seen in a very long time, maybe in all of its history.
His fear mongering has worked wonderfully to his advantage, and now, in the span of twenty-four hours my friends who are Hijabis are considering taking them off because of the dirty looks they receive. In the span of twenty-four hours, my family and friends watched in horror as the country we call our home showed its true colors, and elected a man who has done and said every terrible thing imaginable. In the span of twenty-four hours I have cried because America is called the "Land of Dreams" and we just elected a racist, Islamophobic, homophobic, and misogynistic man as our president. In the span of twenty-four hours I have cried because my young siblings and their generation will have to deal with the type of racism I thought ended with me and my generation.
In the span of twenty-four hours I have cried more times than I can count because I am so scared. I am so very scared and no one can understand how I feel. Or so I thought before Wednesday night.
The Wednesday night after the election I went to the Donald Trump protest in downtown Chicago, and my faith in the American people, my faith in humanity was restored. The true terror I had felt in the past day completely dissipated when I arrived, I had felt safe for the first time in what seemed like forever. We shared our stories, we cried together, we hugged each other, and we fought for each other. Almost a million people came out, and felt exactly how I did. We were scared and angry and upset but being together, supporting each other took a load off of our shoulders.
The amount of encouragement I received from this community, and from my community back at home makes me eternally grateful to be an American. Because this is what America is about. People uniting together, people caring for each other, people loving each other.
Donald Trump and his supporters’ ideals are not American nor will they ever be.
