Last week, the majority of voters across this great nation were accosted. They were accosted by painful and frightening facts. The fact is, Donald Trump is the nation's president-elect. Hillary Clinton will not be our next president in spite of winning the countries popular vote and lastly, our brand of democracy let us down. The already fractured nation, instantly divided. While most Californians crawled to bed in a flurry of tears, revelers in Durham, North Carolina revived the swastika and spray painted heinous messages across the city. One thing is abundantly clear, we are irrefutably a nation in trouble and un-united.
As if on cue, five days later I was accosted by a member of Trump's Nation in my happy place. I was somewhere between the Ezekiel bread and the almond butter at my local Trader Joe's when a red-capped foot solider began ranting loudly in my direction. For obvious reasons I was completely paralyzed, this stranger stood there talking, nay, yelling directly at me. I instantly felt as if I was spearheading a socio-political mannequin challenge. Everyone in the store focused their gaze in his direction and froze. I can't be sure what it was that set the foot soldier off. Maybe it because I was holding my future wife's hand or maybe it was because I'm brown, who can say? For a reason that will remain unknown there he stood, in his hateful red cap, frothing at the mouth with indignation and screaming something non sensical about Benghazi.
Thankfully, in this particular circumstance I wasn't the minority. I mean, the guy was vomiting hate speech at a crowded grocery store in Los Angeles. Talk about not playing to your audience. In that moment, I stood with my fellow grocery shoppers united. The red baseball cap was alone in his hatred and I walked away relatively unscathed. Sadly, on the grander scale of the nation, he isn't a minority. This reality is undeniable for any media or social media consumer. The internet is flooded with posts and proofs attesting to the rise and promise of red state bigotry in contrast to blue state revolution.
Surprisingly it's within this division as a Queer, immigrant, woman of color, that I have found a great deal of comfort. It seems to me that though diverse, liberal Americans are unified. White liberals are enraged and fed up with White America, they are furious at the atrocities continuing to be perpetuated and are completely divorcing themselves from that identity. Modern men are segregating themselves from their brethren, rebuking the antiquated Boy's Club where less honorable men than them, talk about grabbing pussies. I have personally witnessed many of my heterosexual counter parts up in arms and disgusted. They are completely unable to comprehend how marriage equality is still a topic of political conversation.
The U.S. liberal nation was called to look beyond its own immediacy. For liberals this meant prioritizing human rights over their individual wants and needs. Many of us understood that this election was far bigger than a debate about whether we should raise or lower taxes. The Republican party ran a hate fueled campaign inciting violence and bigotry nation wide. Our President-elect accepted the endorsement of the KKK without word of acknowledgement and our Vice President-elect has advocated for diverting tax payer dollars toward gay conversion therapy. Thankfully, liberals understood that we desperately needed to vocalize our complete rejection of this disgusting and harmful rhetoric.
We as humans are responsible for the message we send when we discriminate against and marginalize minorities. Modern liberals are urgently trying to send messages of acceptance and compassion. Instead of inciting blind prejudice, they are striving to encourage inclusion and unity for the only true race, the human race. That is what this election has been about for many of us. It's within that knowledge and because of that knowledge, that I have been able to find some true comfort. Sure, my heart is still sore and my will is still a little bruised but, I stand proudly as a queer, immigrant, woman of color, in this Un-United States of America. I stand proudly because, I truly believe that we won't be Un-United for long.