Before last week I thought politics had no bearing on friendships, relationships, or familial relationships. This week I changed my mind. My mom never talks about politics with anyone. Not even her siblings. I never understood why. She will literally shut down and go mute when politics come up and will not engage anyone in a conversation. I didn't get it until now. Last Wednesday America elected a bigot, racist, misogynist and an Islamophobic, or at the very least someone who has presented himself as such. I won't take you through all of the emotions and thoughts from the beginning of his campaign until election night, but I will take you from election night through now. No political view, party or official you deem best fit to uphold your views and interest is independent of the people you interact with every day. There isn't a single policy you want to see implemented or scrapped that affects you alone. And that is truly the heart of it all. We select people who align with our views, or in the case of this election, we select the better fit candidate according to what we deem the best fit. What is your personal line of best fit? Because you don't select a leader to uphold institutions critical to your life and livelihood and say it isn’t personal. What is the truth?

Which brings me to ask, for those who voted for our president-elect because he would “fix the economy” “ has successful businesses,” and “will bring jobs,” at what point did you consider the calamities which could befall me and people like me? Woman. African. Muslim? When you thought about it, how did you negotiate with yourself that giving him the presidency was worth it. What does that mean for you and me? This isn't about a “bigger picture,” because I AM the bigger picture. The economy, jobs, legislation, none of that is negotiable with my life, safety, and well-being. It never will be. When looking historically at the periods of time when this country was “great” and “thriving” and the epitome of success, people like me could always be found underneath the rubble. There hasn’t been a single era of American politics where the disenfranchised thrived from economic or political power. For us, it’s been a slow but not steady incline that seems to decline whenever America and its politics neglect or persecute us. There has always seemed to be a bigger and more important picture than having a political sphere that ensures our progression.

So at what point do you love me and care about me enough to change, or alter your political views so that it includes me? At what point is it that personal for you? It is so easy to write it off and say that America’s checks and balances will protect me. But the president-elect and many before him didn't like me. I googled, “America’s best president’s.” Several lists came up with different rankings. Not a single list had a single president that wasn't an outright racist, misogynist or passive about the disparities of minorities. Not a single president. These men are considered America’s greatest presidents. I suppose we didn't have much of a say in that, did we?

So from now on, your political views matter to me. I care to know what you care about, what you believe, what institutions you support, or don't and why. I care about it all because I am not interested in a neighbor who will watch America shackle and burn me and tell me “it’s not personal.” Nor am I interested in a neighbor that will try to negotiate with their conscience after helping to further oppress me. There is no separating me from your politics. I not one person, I am an entire, gender, diaspora, religion, and race that has been the casualty of the world’s “politics” for too long. That is what that means for you and me.