I woke up to a silent city. The morning of November 9th completely silenced the city of New York. I saw no one walking down 9th Ave with the confidence a usual New Yorker walks with. No one said a word on the Subway. No one had processed the outcome of the election yet. I showed up to my early morning class and saw people dressed in black. It felt as if someone had died. You know that feeling when you're like "yeah I just saw this person and now they're gone". It was so unusually quiet.
What will the future of the United States of America come to? No one knows what this misogynistic racist orange monster is going to do with a country that has taken so many steps forward the past few years. Watching many Americans fall down to tears, as a member of a minority directly targeted by who now is the 45th president of the USA, I grieved along with my peers.
I don't want to make this article about politics, I want to make it about what electing Donald Trump means in the eyes of people who fight for equal humanitarian rights. I am a Latino woman currently feeling directly targeted not only by Donald Trump himself but by his encouragement of discrimination of all kinds. I am surrounded by members of the LGBTQ community, African-Americans, Latino/as, Muslims and other women who are currently being affected by Trump's advocacy of white male supremacy. I fear for the future of this country because I am a person. A person who very much respects the social change and acceptance of minorities in the USA during the past years. A person who would like to see the most powerful nation on Earth open its arms to the people who struggle day to day to be entitled to "liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
It sickens me to see people celebrate this man who is the symbol of racism and patriarchy, ignorance, and homophobia, misogyny and xenophobia. It absolutely terrifies me to think of what it will be like to speak Spanish, wear a hijab or love a person of my same gender in public. It devastates me to think about what it will be like to be a woman, of any race, and have a president who promotes sexual assault and the degradation of women. It breaks my heart to see the division of race, religion, gender and sexuality that is being advertised by America's newly elected president.
The only thing left for me to say after experiencing these last 24 hours of grief is to stand strong against the dominion of hate. The only power we have now is the power to love. Hug your friends and family. Leave all differences aside. We are all in this struggle together and will eventually help each other overcome. Show yourself loud and be proud of where you come from. Not even an ignorant racist egomaniac will ever be able to rip apart your identity.
We will fight back and we will make America tolerant.
