Since the election of Trump, a number of people now feel justified to say or do anything to marginalized groups. I am concerned for the safety of so many people. I have friends of different ethnic backgrounds, races, countries of origin, religions, social class, gender identities, gender expressions, ability statuses, and a plethora of other identities, and I am so fearful of what is going to happen. In society, I mostly show up as a White, Cis-gender male, middle class, in this respect I am offered a great deal of privilege and safety–I however identify as a gay male. Over the course of my life, people have speculated that I am gay based on the way I speak or through my mannerisms and as a result I have experienced some uncomfortable situations–uncomfortable but never physically hurt or intimidated. I feel that this is largely due in part to my White, male status–this lens of privilege has protected me and as a result, I have lived a safe life as an openly gay male.
However, I am not sure I will continue to remain safe. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can say as a gay male, in an interracial relationship with a Chinese man, who is here in America on an F1 Visa, I am worried about the safety of my partner and myself. I worry about my partner who attends college in rural PA, where his community is basically homogeneously White–he sticks out because he is racially and ethnically different. While he has been safe from physical harm, he has had people scream racial slurs at him while walking in his local park. I very much worry that someone could physically hurt him–maybe even kill him because he is a “foreigner.” I worry that he may eventually find himself on a banned list of foreign countries and then will be denied access to the county. My worries reflect my lived experience but I am sure there are hundreds of thousands going through similar experiences.
You may ask yourself, “Why does any of this matter to me?” If you’ve read this far, I appreciate you devotion and hope that you are somewhat intrigued. I am going to segue into my main concerns, fears, and realities of #PostTrumpAmerica
Will this #PostTrumpAmerica make people feel they can do more? Will #PostTrumpAmerica incite more hate? Will #PostTrumpAmerica allow people to justify their racism, bigotry, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and ethnocentrism? All signs point to YES.
In #PostTrumpAmerica, people can:
- Go to a restaurant and write on their waiter’s receipt, “Sorry I don’t tip f*ggots,’ and then said “#UNeedJesus”
- A Muslim Mosque can be set on fire because of Muslim hate.
- A car can be covered in graffiti with racial slurs
In #PostTrumpAmerica, people feel that they are entitled to say/scream/write:
- A US Soldier tweeted: “Y’all in Trump’s America now… Time to flick that chip off ya shoulder and quit being so offended. Gay jokes are back on ya bunch of homos.”
- A North Texas high school chants “Build the wall.” during a volleyball meet.
- A swastika is painted on the dugout of a baseball field in NY and reads: “Make America White Again”
In #PostTrumpAmerica things are being done to threaten/harm/hurt/intimidate others:
- At a Canisus College, a black doll was discovered in an elevator on campus and found hanging from a curtain rod in a residence room hall.
- A student at Shasta High School in Redding, California, posted a video on Twitter of himself handing letters with the word “deportation” written across the top to half a dozen students.
- A San Diego State University student walking to her car was confronted by two men who made comments about Trump and Muslims
Is this the American I now live in? Yes…
Not to say that incidents of hate haven’t been happening but it’s becoming more wide spread and more publicized. In fact, there have been nearly 900 incidents of hate since Trump was elected (Check out those cool graphics at the top of this post).
A collective thought of “We can do this because Trump is President?,” has spread through certain groups of people–I would say a majority of these people are White, religious right, the disenfranchised poor individuals who felt that, because we had President Barack Obama for the past eight years, that minorities gained too much ground. As a result, many individuals are experiencing extreme hate and bigotry.
Trump is doing much of what he said. We wanted to pretend that maybe he was saying these crazy things to gain supporters…but so far he has kept his word. We have seen a number of Executive Orders go out in the past week that support much of the examples I have provided above. If the President can do it, what stops anyone else?
#PostTrumpAmerica sucks; but we need to be the agents of change that are working to fight the Trump administration on every turn.
How can you help? Here a list of few agencies that need your support, financially and with manpower:
- ACLU
- HRC
- Planned Parenthood
- Southern Poverty Law Center
- Lambda Legal
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- Council on American-Islamic Relations
- Rape Abuse & Incest National Network
- Stand With Standing Rock
- Americans for Immigrant Justice
Now more than ever, we must be vigilante, we must be active, and we must be aware. I hope that in four years, we can see #PostTrumpAmerica as the end to the problems of racism, sexism, classism, ableism, ethnocentrism, and so on. Where we see a change in our country for the better. I know that I can’t do it without all of you.
chriscbryant.com 