I have honestly found my body processing the results of the presidential election similarly to how it has processed the deaths of close family members. I prayed the night of the election, hard. I woke up the next morning and immediately began sobbing. I see a lot of my peers reacting similarly to how I have. I talked to a friend today who has been physically ill since finding out and looks like he has the flu. Other people have cried just like me. In a sense, we have all lost someone. We're all grieving a friend. It gives me comfort to know I'm not alone in my feelings, but this solidarity doesn't erase the concrete fact that we are all terrified out of our minds.
My aforementioned friends, numerous acquaintances, countless strangers and I feel deeply wounded, and a lot of people we know on the Right are unable to comprehend why. In the short time since the electoral votes were counted, I have found myself being interrogated in the workplace and feeling violated in a sense. I made someone angry because I had a different view from hers after the election had concluded. Adults who were already grown during my childhood, whom I remember as sweet people with virtually nonexistent tempers, have been posting abusive material on social media and speaking in a manner that is frankly horrifying. People I know have been recording their personal accounts of hearing kids talk to each other this week- a lot of white children middle school-aged and younger telling brown-skinned children to "go back where you came from", and a whole lot of harmful language and hate spew. When that internalized hateful and harmful rhetoric is acted upon, the victims of it become unhappy. I'm seeing an expanded circulation of contact information for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline for those who need it, and I really could not be more thankful that people are sharing that info.
A lot of people don't know how to cope, and more of them don't have a person in the world to talk to about what they are experiencing emotionally right now. They feel like the entire world has turned against them, so they turn to violence. When it boils down to it, I think rioting means acting out when you think there's just no trust or hope left inside you. Though it is scary, it's how these people are currently able to place and process the fear, anger, and sadness they're experiencing- the exact same feelings I had when I woke up in tears the morning after the election.
To my people on the Right: you are allowed to be happy that the candidate you voted for won the election. Please give the rest of us the space and respect to feel what we feel and process our grief. Please refrain from trying to correct those of us who are having a hard time about our emotions.
