Lately, I've heard a lot about division in America.
Division of ideologies, specifically, has been brought to the forefront of our Facebook feeds due to the severe difference in opinions of our new president.
The other day, while I was in my university computer lab, I heard a girl telling her friend that "it's a shame people can't put aside their differences to unite as a country, again."
Again?
You see, when we talk about the past, the past that we weren't alive to remember and can only cite thanks to our high school history teachers, do we really know what it was like?
When we say things like Trump caused a divide in this country, do we really mean it?
Sure, he has 100 percent brought the divide to our attention, but did he cause it alone?
Because America, the America that minorities, queer people and immigrants know, has always been divided. There has always been a separate America for those who struggle and those who don't.
There are people from all over the political spectrum that actually, truly believe that at one point in time, America was united and agreed unanimously on the morals that we, as Americans, should have, and that's just not true.
Americans have always been divided, whether we want to believe it or not.
We have never been equal. Women, minorities, gay people, immigrants - none of us have ever been equal to the white American male. There has always been a divide between rich and poor, black and white, educated and uneducated - the list of divides are endless and have never not existed.
The foundation of America was laid on the backs of slavery and built up by the work of immigrants. There was never a point in time where this country was united, where we accepted everyone, where we cared for and about everyone.
Never.
I love the idea of unity, trust me, but to ask me to unify under a president that acts as a mouthpiece for xenophobia, white supremacists and general bigotry? Where was this want for unity under President Obama? Why were you not calling for "an end to the divide" anywhere from 2008-2016?
If we aren't supposed to "disrespect the president," why did a vast majority of you call into question the citizenship of Obama?
Why were you allowed to protest, but we aren't? Is it because our numbers are bigger? Is it because the march against Trump the day after his inauguration was one of the biggest protests in recent history? Is it because it reached areas all over the world and you're upset that everyone isn't just quietly letting him slide?
You don't want to be united. You want millions of marginalized people to shut up and deal with it because it's something you want and benefit from.
You talk about a false version of America that acts as a Utopia for you to dream about and imagine we could go back to, but it doesn't exist.
And it never did.
If we, as a country, are going to get anywhere close to being united, we are going to have to listen to the people who have always bore the burden of this divide. We are going to have to listen to their struggles, understand why they are protesting, understand our own privilege even if it makes us uncomfortable, show them empathy and give them a voice in this country that we share.
That's how we begin to unite -- not by reverting back to "the good old days", not by allowing a xenophobe with the biggest mouth control us, not by accepting our fate, but by progressing forward so much so that we can look behind us and not even think about going back.
