It’s taken me a while to sit down and write out everything I’ve been thinking/feeling over the last few weeks because there’s just been SO MUCH. For some crazy reason I figured once the election was called yes, there would be some pouting and dramatic Twitter meltdowns, but that he would begrudgingly concede. HA HA LOL YEAH RIGHT. We’re going on week 2 post-election and he’s still filing claims in multiple courts to overturn the results. Goodness and Giuliani is leading the charge. It would be comical if the egregious delay to the transition of power wasn’t directly impacting the handling of the pandemic. It feels like we’re all just in this forced limbo right now bracing for heaven or hell. Doomed. Waiting. Forever.

After the high of the Biden/Harris win subsided, and I got all of the intense bouts of laughter and tears out of my system, reality hit me. As exit polls continue to roll in and we get a better understanding of how Democrats won the presidency (thank the sweet heavens), we are yet again forced to face the glaring issue of just how deep the divide in this country goes. We are at odds. There is a huge portion of the country that is indifferent to or fully supportive of inherent white supremacy, and are willing to go through great lengths to uphold it. We all went through 4 years of being lied to, laughed at, degraded, and attacked only for 70+ MILLION people to want another 4 years of the same. This is in large part because they’re living in a completely different reality where Trump could literally do no wrong. Thank Fox News and the conservative propaganda machine for that. Maybe Russia? Lemme stop…. but maybe?!
So, not only did they feel confident that a man who has taken a woeful stance against human life by ignoring the pandemic and exacerbating racial tension by telling white supremacists to “stand back and stand by,” but most importantly, they voted for what he stands for, his principles in some shape or form. He pointedly represents greed and racism and he has showed us this on numerous occasions explicitly or indirectly through his (lack of) actions. That is the problem. Yes, more voters as a whole voted for Biden, but considering the amount of people who still voted for Trump is extremely alarming. They held a rally just this past weekend and walked the streets of DC vowing to “clean up antifa.” You know who was in attendance? White supremacists and nazis, that’s who. So, let’s not sugarcoat the facts. The reasoning behind the Trump vote is based on far more nefarious things than tax breaks. A large swath of white America voted for Donald Trump because of fear, hatred, ignorance, greed, and/or religion. Each and every one of these different rationales to put this sociopath back in office is what feeds into larger mechanisms of white supremacy, classism, and capitalism. These are the pillars holding up the status quo and continuously perpetuating it over the years. It is by no means solely their fault the system is the way it is, but they are, currently, a huge barrier in the way of progress.

However, they are not the only people who are benefitting from the current state of affairs. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a letter while in Birmingham city jail outlining the enemy of progress as the white moderate. It’s easy to point fingers at an obvious monster wearing a MAGA hat with a swastika tattoo and waving a Blue Lives Matter flag, but not when that monster is in the mirror. Albeit a less ferocious-looking monster, a monster nonetheless. One that has for so long understood the implications of a racist system but has done nothing to challenge it. Still scary.
It’s going to take much more than marches and donations (still good to do!) to get this country to be an equitable place for everyone. The US has been operating as is for so long because change is hard and deeply uncomfortable. Change comes in the form of tough decisions and consequences for actions. Talking and understanding why systemic racism is important, but so is knowing how to dismantle it and doing the work to do so. Luckily, we can start making large-scale moves towards fairness and equality with this new administration, but Joe and Kamala aren’t going to be the fix-all. This country has a long road ahead to right its wrongs and while it will take all of us to create this new, enlightened country, the majority of it has to face itself in a very real and honest way.

This brings me to the media’s strange way of offering solutions to “bridge the gap” by understanding the Trump voter and giving them spreads in newspapers where they can air their grievances about “political correctness” and “the coastal elite.” Oh and their all time favorite “woke” people. I’m not sure about everyone else in this country, but I’m done being subjected to Trump voters’ mentality, so these calls for sympathy are infuriating. Putting the impetus on Biden voters to explain and listen to why they voted for Trump is preposterous. I am not going to have a discussion about my humanity with someone who doesn’t believe my life matters and is aggressively supporting MAGA to the point where they’re celebrating gunning people down in the streets. Nah. I won’t be trying to empathize with that.

The other notion popping up all around the airwaves is this idea that Black women “saved the country” by voting for Biden/Harris in droves. Um. We didn’t do it for anyone else but ourselves and our families. This wasn’t an effort to “save America” it was an effort to save our community from the violence and oppression of this current administration. We voted to protect ourselves and each other from a regime of antagonistic bigots who are actively trying to take away our rights as women and freedoms as citizens. We voted for our self-interests because there is more of a chance to move the needle and for our general safety with Trump out of office. This wasn’t an election like any other. There was so much more on the line than just electing a Democrat because Trump is unlike any Republican we’ve seen. He is not normal, and we should never be under the impression that his words or actions should ever be acceptable for a president ever again. The work that’s now going to need to be done to bridge the divide he’s compounded is astronomical. I’ve been hearing pundits say they have to take Black women’s lead in healing America. That work should not settle squarely on the shoulders of Black women. To think that Black women have to not only be responsible for our own communities, but now all of a sudden the solutions for the entire country is just plain presumptuous. To put that type of burden onto the very people being oppressed by this system and calling us heroes just takes away the very real pain behind the motivation. Black women organizers have been doing the work for decades and not getting recognized for it, so this type of applause is superficial. It seems like just another way to rope Black women into more grueling work that results in minor changes, because legislation and policy is so implicitly steeped in racism. We cannot change this system on our own nor should we be expected to. Regardless of how shallow these accolades feel to me, America should absolutely continue to GIVE BLACK WOMEN FLOWERS. Though I find the assumptions made by those pundits impertinent, that doesn’t mean I am not fully inspired, proud, and exhilarated by the work I’ve seen in Georgia and know will continue to come out of my sisters who organize. I am glad that more Black women are being recognized for their work and for their effort but we are still human beings who need support, psychological safety, and empathy. Yes, we are “strong black women,” but we’re also just people. The Black women organizers who have been pouring in all of their effort, time, and energy all across the country to secure this win deserve the world. And to all the Black women who got Biden/Harris elected, WE DID THAT!

In conclusion, everything still seems to be an utter dumpster fire on the Trump front. It’s unclear when or if he’ll ever concede. Until then, he’s shamelessly asking his supporters for money which he is undoubtedly pocketing to cover all the litigation fees he’s gonna have when he leaves office. I cannot wait to never think about him ever again. Though his influence is long-lasting at least I won’t need to write his stupid name out or worry he’s going to plunge us into nuclear war because he’s angry. One day. That day is not today. FML.