Deirdra Harris Glover
Managing Editor
Donald J. Trump is president-elect of the United States of America. I know this isn’t the way many of us envisioned it.
Our nation’s name paints a very different picture of the reality of this republic. This was a bitter, close election, where the popular vote went to Hillary Clinton and the electoral delegates went to Trump. As someone who loves politics, I didn’t love this election.
We’ve known for a long time that vote-for-vote, America is neither red nor blue, but the purple of a mottled, ugly bruise.
A foreign nation and its cohort WikiLeaks worked very hard to impact and undermine the U.S. election process.
There is a portion of the population who will always wonder if a federal agency moved too quickly to give public comment in the final hours before the election.
We are a nation that has forgotten its history.
White women turned out for Trump in the same way as white suffragettes fought tooth and nail for themselves but not for people of color.
The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism reports figures showing that hate crimes are on the rise since the beginning of the campaign season, with an 89-percent spike in hostile actions against Muslims in America. There is a significant groundswell of speech and threats against Jews, particularly Jewish journalists and outspoken Clinton supporters.
Threats against journalists are par for the course—it has always been a hazard of the profession, but our president-elect has mobilized and incited crowds against the media. The press is an integral part of a free and just society, and the nation has been mobilized against it
In fairness, mainstream media has confused the matter—there is a distinct and important distinction between equal coverage and the false normalization of our president-elect. My fellow future journalists who inherit this media circus must regain the trust of the American people while navigating the presidency of a man who frequently invited the press and advocates for press suppression.
If you voted for Trump because of fiscal concerns or because you couldn’t abide Hillary, now is the time to prove it. A large contingent of America voted for him because of the racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, xenophobic, anti-woman rhetoric that came from Trump and his surrogates.
I urge you to stand with people who don’t look like you, with people who worship differently than you or not at all, because this election was won by a base who equates religious freedom with discrimination. I beg you to stand with immigrants and other people of color who are deeply afraid of a growing white nationalist movement. I urge you to stand by the LGBTQ community, regardless of your personal opinions, because they are facing the prospect of being stripped of their rights to love and raise families.
Many of you are young voters, disappointed by your options in this election, and disillusioned with the political process. It’s understandable, but please don’t look away. Invest in your communities. Find the places where you can do good, and uplift people who are struggling. Support your artists and dreamers, because they will be the ones to heal our hearts. Organize for the future you want to see.
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