Tuesday, I woke up feeling ready to take on the day. I felt ready to vote and later witness history happen as the United States had its first female president-elect. When I sat watching it actually go down, I was sobbing. I was terrified. My trans boyfriend was terrified. My minority friends were terrified and the worst part of it all was that people were telling us to calm down.
I lost people over how they voted in this election, I'm not afraid to say it, because I'm not interested in anyone who is blatantly racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic or bigoted...and I'm not interested in anyone who is alright with being that way. People's lives are at risk in a world where Donald Trump is our president. Hate crimes in the U.S. are hitting an all time high since 9/11, people are getting hurt. Yet, so many want to tell us to calm down, to wait and see what happens and to not be scared because Trump can't actually do everything he said he was going to do.
He can, but regardless of that, people are out there with the notion that it's alright to HURT others and they are ACTUALLY doing it. Our fear comes from a genuine place, and I don't see a single person paralyzed by it. We are not weakened, this fear is bringing us together. It is making us stronger because it is making us angry. We are rising up.
I'm a theatre major, I make art and that's what I want to do for a living. The day after the election, my professor and friend Dr. Hill read to us a letter he wrote that was published to OnStage. We as theatre students, makers of art, listened to this. We cried and we united. Theatre is always strongest in times of despair, and it gives us hope. So, naturally, we continue to make art.
But it doesn't end there, it doesn't end with theatre majors listening to Hamilton and crying. For me, I listen to Hamilton and feel empowered enough to want to stand up against it all. Any act of injustice I see, any hate crime, any way that I can protest. That's what I'm doing. That's what so many people are doing, and the same people who told us not to be scared are the ones telling us we shouldn't be protesting. We should respect that he's our president and move on. As if that isn't ironic enough, telling us to respect him as our president even though they so loudly disrespected Obama. We're using our first amendment rights, the ones they fight so much for when they attack identities and races over Facebook.
And I'm angry, we all are. We don't have to respect this man who has never respected us. Nothing has ever gotten done by people sitting idly by, waiting. Nothing ever will. That is why we rise up. That is why we listen to Hamilton and start a revolution. That is why we are empowered and angry and scared. We're allowed to be, don't minimize that, don't tell us we shouldn't be. Because we're doing it, we're going to change the world. Just you wait.
