#LoveTrumpsHate

I woke up numb.

There’s this lingering feeling of dread, but otherwise, everything feels surreal. It’s almost like an out-of-body experience where I’m mid-nightmare peering from the outside in, knowing, hoping, that this all couldn’t possibly be real.

I get it. The people spoke. The whole Midwest spoke loud and clear—and now we have our next president (with the most un-presidential acceptance speech I’ve ever heard, by the way). It’s not Trump who terrifies me though, it’s the mass of people who voted for him who scare me. They’ve spoken. They’ve been brewing and burning for eight years watching a black man live in the White House and lead our nation with utmost grace and wisdom. And now, they’ve won.

“A terrifying night, and not just because Trump might win. It turns out that there is a deeper rage in white, rural America than I knew. The voters there know what Trump is; they know what they’re voting for, and they’re doing it anyway. How does our society hold together?” —Paul Krugman

I’m shaking. I’m furious. I’m disgusted, and I won’t apologize for language: Look. At. That. Fucking. Map. This mass of people came out and voted for the man who stands for everything that America was supposed to be against. Every textbook, every pledge of allegiance, every Fourth of July feels like a lie. As a minority and a woman and a fucking human being, I’m scared. Trump’s win is a mockery of all that we claim to be. Does America hate non-white people that much? Does America hate women that much?

Here’s what we now know: “There are no winners. Half the country has openly voted for the oppression of LGBT’s, minorities’, and women’s rights.” —Jill Biden

This one man, Donald Trump, was able to incite the worst in this nation. He fed on ignorance, fear, hate and unleashed the ugliest parts of human nature (and this nation).

I’m petrified. And I’m fucking angry.

The worst part is that I’m not surprised. For decades we’ve been told that racism no longer exists and that women have broken the glass ceiling, but here we are today: Thank you, Trump, for exposing the deep-rooted xenophobia, misogyny, and homophobia that exists and will be perpetuated under Trump’s thumb.

This is the world we live in.

I’m ill, and I’m heartbroken for all the immigrants like my father who believed so strongly in the American people and the American system. We failed them last night. All of us.

Because in the midst of manically refreshing for live results, rage-tweeting, texting/snapping/calling my friends, I realized that we’re all at fault no matter who we voted for. Sure, we’re furious today, but tomorrow will start to feel normal again. We’ll wake up, get ready for work, and go about our lives for the next four (which will likely turn into eight) years like nothing is wrong. We get riled up (after the fact, it’s important to note), and then we fall back into complacency. We accept defeat. And we don’t rise until something so horrible, so dramatic, so sickening shakes us to our core. It’s too late then. A wall gets built. Another black man gets shot. Another woman’s rapist walks free. And a man like Trump rises to power—which empowers all those who voted for him.

I’m tired of being quiet. I’m sick of being complacent.

Let this loss be the wake-up call that we—we women, we children of immigrant parents, we yellow, brown, black, and white human fucking beings need to do better. Be better.

Do not back down. Refuse to be silenced. Get angry. Be loud. Get heard.

“The easy thing is to keep your head down and let the bullies run amok. The right thing to do is to challenge racism, misogyny and hatred,” J. K. Rowling tweeted. So stay. Do not despair for long; instead, stand up for what’s right. Let 2016 be a call to action, starting now.

Remember: When they go low, we go high.

.  .   .

xx