As a black woman who grew up as one of the few POC in a sea of predominant whiteness (I did ALL of my schooling in super-racist and homophobic Canby, Oregon), I’ve become very aware of the kinds of bigots and bigot sympathizers who made a Trump presidency possible. I, like so many other Portlanders, gritted my teeth and voted for Hillary Clinton with the highest of hopes (despite her problematic past policies), but I felt sick at the overconfidence of my social network of progressives. I didn’t want to be surprised when Trump was elected, like so many UK citizens were by their comparable Brexit vote. So over the course of the campaign season I told myself and others on a daily basis that Donald Trump was probably going to win the Presidency.
As the days passed and the election results started to sink in, I saw my friends and family members shaken with grief, shock, confusion, and concern for what these results mean for so many marginalized groups, then take to the streets to protest. That’s right people, we have not been making this shit up or “complaining” for years about our disenfranchisement just for shits and giggles. The majority of white people—or at least white voters—do not care about Trump’s lack of experience, policy proposals, or mental stability. Instead they rally around him because of his backward rhetoric. We know this because it’s the only thing he has presented to us.
