Although my colleague makes a good point on moving on and the problem with protests and how they may get out of hand, I do not believe that moving on is as easy as giving the president elect a chance. The fact that so many people supported him is the problem and the most upsetting part for a lot of Americans who did not support the candidate.

It is easy to disregard Trump being elected when you are not a part of any minority that is threatened by his presidency or if you are privileged in some way. Trump stands for sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, xenophobia, white supremacy, etc. Yet, so many that should be threatened by him voted for him because in the end they identified with one or more of the beliefs that made his disregard for them irrelevant.

An example of this is white women who voted for Trump that disregarded the way he spoke about women. I spoke to one of my professors about it and she, a white woman, said that it was after all just “locker room talk” and that we should give the man a chance and there should not be protests because this country prides itself on the peaceful transition of power that other countries like those in South America or Pakistan, Israel, Iraq, etc. do not have. This is what she said, in a belittling tone of those countries if I may add. In that statement alone, she exhibits why the Trump presidency does not bother her although she did not vote for him (so she says) and that she does identify with at least some amount of xenophobia and white supremacy being that she mentioned countries that are for the most part not considered “white” countries.

That was just one example, there are many like that who because they are privileged to be white, male, cisgendered, straight, documented or well-off financially, they cannot see past their scope of perspective or are just plain racist. The protests are against Trump, but they are more so a way for people to stand up and say we are not all in agreement with all these beliefs and a lot of us have been offended, not only by the candidate himself, but by the people who chose to support him, from the very educated to the ignorant, from the poor to the elite, whomever voted for him was making a statement against someone whether they would like to admit it or not.

So this movement is more than just sore losers coming together against the triumphant candidate, but rather a stand against everything that got him elected, all the hatred against a number of peoples who are in fact American too.