“This country is a nation of thieves. It stole everything it has, beginning with black people. The U.S. cannot justify its existence as the policeman of the world any longer. I do not want to be a part of the American pie. The American pie means raping South Africa, beating Vietnam, beating South America, raping the Philippines, raping every country you’ve been in. I don’t want any of your blood money. I don’t want to be part of that system. We must question whether or not we want this country to continue being the wealthiest country in the world at the price of raping everybody else. -Stokely Carmichael

President-elect Donald Trump...

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't even watch the elections. I knew he would win. We live in a capitalist country. However, that didn't stop me from bawling my eyes out. When I rolled over to check my Instagram feed the first thing I am faced with are grim, suicidal memes after the results of the 2016 presidential election. After verifying on cnn.com I called my afro-boricua ex-boyfriend and wept even more. It's true. Donald Trump is the President of The United States of America.

“If a white man wants to lynch me, that's his problem. If he's got the power to lynch me, that's my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it's a question of power. Racism gets its power from capitalism. Thus, if you're anti-racist, whether you know it or not, you must be anti-capitalist. The power for racism, the power for sexism, comes from capitalism, not an attitude.” - Stokely Carmichael

My tears weren't rooted in fear. Let's get that clear. 'There's a higher law than the law of government. That's the law of conscience.' The secret of life is to have no fear; it's the only way to function. I wept for my fellow immigrants. I bawled because I was going to have to fight harder than I ever had in my life. For the first time, I wasn't fighting for myself. This wasn't about some white boy telling me he wouldn't dare date a black girl or my girlfriend's white supremacist friend screaming "white power, fuck niggers" in the middle of Old Orchard Mall, this isn't even about a police officer shoving my 70-year-old father into his car because he wasn't walking fast enough, or being dragged down my hallway stairs in handcuffs back in Chicago. This is about my people, my Muslim roots, the well-being of my future black sons, my LGBTQ family, and my sisters all over the world. This fight is bigger than all of us. We have to stand up and stand together with love in our hearts. We mustn't be divided.

As a black woman, in America, I was double-fucked either way. Did I really want the wife of Bill Clinton: father of the "three strikes you're out" legislation- which has served to send increasingly large numbers of our black men to prison? Leaving millions of black families fatherless? Or did I want an orange, racist demagogue who refused to condemn the white supremacist who campaigned to hell for him?

I have no words. I'm emotional. Disappointed, yet not surprised.

I'm simply writing this because I believe that we have to write and document our history. While we have the right. We as people of color have to fucking write. If we allow someone else to document our lives for us; things become twisted and we get written out. If we can't have a meaningful discussion about the racism and hate that occurs every day in this country and will only increase after this election, our actions will move in misleading directions.

“being in love with my people does not mean I hate others. how ridiculous is that?” - Nayyirah Waheed, salt.