Lets Unite AND Be Different
As ironic as this articles title might seem, I can’t see any better quick solution to help heal the broken hearts of America’s majority. As of November 8th, 2016 Donald Trump is our new president-elect, and a lot of us are mourning the start of something we have been dreading. The fear of unapologetic racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. that we have all been seeing since day one of the Trump Presidency. Day ONE.
The final answer as to how we should take on our future from now on is definitely unclear, but I hope this becomes a wake up call for everyone who cares to unite and fight back.
As a light skinned person of color, and masculine-passing queer person, I definitely know that my privilege is present, and it is a lot easier for me to say that I need to stand up and fight than someone who is less privileged than me. However, there are several ways to make political stances, and for every one we chose to make we need to make sure that our differences are shinning through. A lot of actions that we take are (or can be) political stances that we take without sometimes knowing it. My hairstyle, my outfit choices, my makeup, and even the people that I chose date have become political stances for me, because a bald brown queer woman can be a lot more intimidating and political than you’d think.
Donald Trump leading our country leads to us, minorities, creating spaces for each other to protest, creating spaces for us to feel safe, connected, united, strong, and still be different. The difficulty we sometimes have with this concept is when we disassociate equality and difference and think we cannot come together once we show our differences. Joan W. Scott challenges this concept when she states,
“The only alternative, it seems to me, is to refuse to oppose equality to difference and insist continually on differences — differences as the condition of individual and collective identities, differences as the constant challenge to the fixing of those identities, history as the repeated illustration of the play of differences, differences as the very meaning of equality itself”
Our differences need to be the core of our anger, dedication, and drive to impact those around us, because difference should never be a means of division and sameness should never equal equality.
Throughout all of this it is also acceptable for us to lose or gain friends (most likely lose). We are definitely right in unfriending racists assholes we considered “acquaintances” simply because we’ve had them as Facebooks friends for the past 6 years. We are not exaggerating or disrespecting others beliefs. If people are not understanding why we cannot “agree to disagree” it is because they are not understanding the gravity of the situation. We can agree to disagree when you tell me your food has enough seasoning and I disagree, but we cannot agree to disagree when you don’t think I deserve basic human rights.
*Insert white person crying over them not being invited to P.O.C only spaces*
White people, these spaces are necessary for us when we feel unsafe, especially living in a country that is now being run by a racist bigot. Although I would love to do so, shaming all white people would get me nowhere, and instead I will provide a helpful tip for them as well. As stated previously, now, more than ever, it is time for white folk to stand up and fight back. History has shown us that people of color never quit and that we may be minorities, and our intersectionalities may be very different from each other, but we always end up picking up the mess that white folk leave. It is now their turn to pick up their own mess. The United States of America is diverse enough for there to be white people with a lot of different views, but according to our current situation, the majority of white people voted against minorities when they voted for Trump. The microaggressions minorities face on a daily basis need to be questioned and called out. Now, more than ever, it is the job of white people to call out their friends, family, and anyone around them when making racists jokes/comments, because now, more than ever, the hate towards minorities is being exposed and ya’ll cannot let it slide any longer.
