This Is A Time of Fear And Uncertainty For Marginalized and Oppressed People
On November 8th, I went to bed uncertain and, too tired to stay awake. At around 3 am I woke myself up and looked for the results went into my mother's room and cried in her arms. I wouldn't find myself in a deep sleep till around 4:30 am and found myself struggling to even get out of bed for class at 8:30. I was not a fan of Hillary Clinton I didn't feel any representation with her prospectively being the first female president but she was the most qualified, overqualified at best. Finding out the GOP held the Senate and the House was another blow. This has happened 3 times now, 1st was the Great Depression, the second was the Great Recession; I guess the third time's a charm especially from a candidate that said "you know what solves it? [About America's economic state] When the economy crashes, when the country goes to total hell and everything is a disaster. Then you'll have a, you know, you'll have riots to go back to where we used to be when we were great". I wish I could say this came at disbelief or a shock. A deeply embedded recurrence in American history is the following of racial justice and progress with white supremacy. When the demographics of who voted and for who it was clear who drove the election. People of color more specifically black women voted en mass for Hillary Clinton, a woman who didn't look like us and who the majority of us didn't even like, and white people of all ages, class and education voted for Trump (so the argument that this was about class is moot), with white women, surprising for most, 52% percent voting for Trump, with an overall 63% of white people voting for Trump. We underestimated the white vote and the deep-seeded racism that has existed since the creation of the nation and has been building up since Obama's 8 years. A lot of people are saying the majority of white women abandoned their gender, I disagree. People think this because they divorce white women from the history of racism, these women are just as racist as their male counterparts, they are more invested in their whiteness than their and other's people's womanhood, only one comes with advantages. This 52% statistic will not be forgotten by Women of Color and the talks of female solidarity that will come about soon. So I reject the notion that this was a loss for all women. This is only a loss for the minority of white women who will still be relatively safe because of their whiteness and a loss for all other oppressed and marginalized groups.
I don't expect Trump to change, he's 70 and his views will never change. What troubles me the most is that his supporters' racism and bigotry are validated. Many of them say they aren't racist for voting for him however what does it say when you vote for a racist that used racism to power his campaign? How great a privilege you must have to ignore a person's racism because it doesn't affect you. There are stark similarities between Brexit and this election. The polls were wrong. They underestimated the white vote. They were both driven by the fear of the nation's demographic changing. By 2050 the ethnic majority in the US will be Latinos and in the UK there will be no white majority, it will become the most diverse country in the world. After Brexit hate crimes rose nearly 400% I'm scared this will happen in the US as well. In fact, it has already started with reports of swastikas waving, Trump's name spray painted on Muslim places of prayer, Black and Latino children being attacked, Muslim women having their religious wear being pulled off violently, and the KKK demonstrating in NC. The only difference between the UK and the US is that the UK has a chance for a do-over, we're stuck with Trump for 4 years. Trump in his speech last night said it was time for Americans to come together after division but he aided in the division. After last night I fear for Muslims especially Muslim women who will feel pressured to hide their faith. I fear the abuse and separation of Latino families. I fear that the strides for civil liberties for black people will be gutted even more from the Voting Rights Act, police brutality and decent living conditions such as in Flint and gentrification. I fear what will happen to Native American communities as their land is further exploited and environmental racism gets pushed upon them. I fear for middle and poor class whose taxes will increase while the wealthiest among us will get undeserving tax cuts. I fear for the loss of reproductive rights not just abortion but birth control, access to reproductive healthcare and the increase in maternal and infant mortality rates for Black and Latina women because of this. I fear the next SCOTUS judge. I fear the loss of transgender rights and the protection of LGBT rights in which our VP is vehemently against and has stated he will advocate for its abolition including same-sex marriage and advocating for conversion and electro-shock therapy for queer and trans people. I fear the potential loss of gun control laws; I fear the loss of a potential mental health care reform for the public and the VA which could've saved my uncle from his PTSD and suicide that Trump openly mocked as well as disabled Americans. I fear the loss of the EPA, climate change progress and the Affordable Care Act. I fear the loss of government funded educational programs. I fear going to work this weekend where most of the white nurses are openly Trump supporters and have talked about shooting Colin Kaepernick at work for other workers and patients and their families' to hear. I fear the economic state and international trade agreements of the world being in the hands of a man whose biggest accomplishments a reality show and who lost nearly a billion dollars. I feel for survivors of sexual assault who can see the apathy towards their pain and that their accusers can potentially hold the highest office in the world without question especially to the woman who wanted to take him to court for his sexual assault of her when she was 13 but dropped because of death threats.
The only comfort I feel is that Clinton won the popular vote by 1.5% bearing resemblance to Bush vs Gore (the US elected Hillary but the system elected Trump) and some of the new faces in Congress such as Kamala Harris, Tammy Duckworth and Ilhan Omar. If we ignore the inherent racism of the result of this election and the rise of extremist conservatism aka fascism around the world we will never come together, we will continue to stab into a festering wound and place a small Band-Aid over it and act shocked when it doesn't heal. This result isn't the cause of non-voters, third party voters or people of color like a lot of white liberals have been declaring, this is unchecked white supremacy just like Brexit. This is also the media's fault who for over a year normalized Trump's racism, xenophobia and bigotry. I don't think Bernie Sanders would've been a more successful candidate, Antisemitism runs deep in this nation as well and I don't see the country extending warmth to the possibility of a first Jewish President At the end of the day Trump's campaign, his supporters, this result is quintessentially American, I don't see any of this as a rebuttal of Obama's policies but of his blackness. We've come full circle again, the 1st president is just as racist as the 45th will be. I hope this is the last time Americans are surprised about the bigotry that is at the foundation of our nation. On January 20th 2017 the first Black president will have to pass on the presidency to a man that tried to delegitimize his historic presidency and who is a racist that was endorsed by the KKK, you really can't get more American than that.
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