The presidential election has finally yielded us a victor: Donald Trump. To say that I was upset at first would be an understatement. I was one of many who was devastated by the victory of Trump. For reasons that are mine alone, I voted for Bernie Sanders in the primaries and cast my ballot for Hillary Clinton in the general election as an absentee voter. I believed that these individuals could bring around change to the United States. When it came to Hillary, I was also excited at the idea of the first women presidential nominee of a major party and the idea of the first woman president.
When Donald Trump started his campaign, I shook it off as a joke like everyone else. There was no way he could have been elected. Not only did Trump promise to build a wall and make Mexico to pay for it, but he also attacked various minorities. According to Trump, Mexicans are "rapists" and Muslims are "terrorists". A man like should not have control over a country based off of diversity and religious freedom.
Yet, he still won. There were thousands who openly supported Trump, and those who supported him silently because they liked his policies but feared being attacked for supporting him. There were plenty of Clinton supporters who dominated the popular vote, but the electoral college awarding victory to Trump was just a punch in the stomach to them. I myself am personally disappointed in this election.
With the victory of Trump, many of voters have allowed the validation of sexual assault and the degradation of women. Trump has multiple cases of sexual assault against him currently pending. He has defended himself by saying that some of the women who are accusing him weren't "hot enough". Many voters have either intentionally or unintentionally now declared, through their vote, that this sort of behavior is okay, even after footage of Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women was released. As a woman who is proud to be in support of feminism, this was a huge blow to me. When people ask "why don't women report rape more?", they only have to turn to the president-elect. Donald sends the message to many young men that you can be accused of sexual assault and still overcome that to become president. Such the patriarchy.
Women aren't just affected by this. Minority groups are too. With the election of Donald Trump, I believe he is validating racism. In the days after the Trump election, I have read multiple news articles about Muslim women having their hijabs ripped off. I have read about Trump supporters telling minorities to "get out of here" or "go back to where you came from". It was hearting-breaking to read about an Indian man being called "Apu" in reference to the character from "The Simpsons" and being told to get out of the country. Heck, Trump himself posted a picture on social media with a taco bowl saying "Happy Cinco de Mayo! I love Hispanics!" That was particularly bothersome because
a.) Cinco de Mayo is a holiday that celebrates the Mexican victory over the Battle of Puebla. He generalized this as something that every single Hispanic ethnicity celebrates.
b.) Taco bowls originated in America and aren't even served by Trump Towers. This was a sad attempt to appeal to Hispanic voters.
Yet again, Trump is sending the message that you can be rude to a variety of races and still become the president. That is personally an awful message to send out.
Finally, the Trump victory is validating violence against the LGBQT community. Trump made the promise to repeal the legalization of gay marriage nationwide. With the Trump victory has come the rise of violent attacks against the LGBQT community. Trump himself even used the Pulse Nightclub attack (in which multiple members of both the Hispanic community and the LGBQT community were killed) to attack gun laws. To a grieving community, that was a low blow. To be treated as a mere object to further a political career is just low, and disrespectful.
To make matters worse, the vice president will be Mike Pence, a man who started the movement to defund Planned Parenthood and supports conversion therapy and signed a law in his state that legalized hate against members of the LGBQT community. With Pence as the vice president, it sends the message that members of that community don't deserve fundamental rights and should be changed to fit with a heteronormative culture.
Before you say that none of these will affect me (except for the woman part), ask yourself this: is it better to be empathetic or apathetic when it comes to voting? I opted for empathetic. It is better to fell sorrow and make change in the world than to feel nothing and go on with my life because these issues don't concern me. I didn't vote for myself; I voted with the thought of others in mind and voted hoping that it would go towards making the world a better place.
I won't stoop to violence because Trump won. Instead, the best thing anyone can do right now is support members of these communities. The next four years may be rough for them if Trump acts on his platform. Who knows, we're not fortune tellers who can predict the future.
As for Trump, I will not denounce him. He won the most important vote at the end of the day. As Hillary Clinton said, everyone at least owes him the chance to lead the country. Who knows, we might be pleasantly surprised.
