After Tuesday’s shocking Presidential results, the United States has been in a complete state of protest. There are gays, blacks, Latinxs, Muslims and all sort of human beings with IQ’s higher of 100 that have been fighting and protesting. For what exactly? Honestly, who knows? There are so many reasons that people are protesting across the US – some are expressing their personal hatred towards Trump and some are expressing their fear over his 4-year reign that is set to begin on January 20, 2017.
Throughout everything – and despite popular opinion within the conservative community – the idea of feeling something has become such a crime. “Your feelings aren’t valid, libs,” one Republican white woman exclaimed on her personal Twitter account that, truthfully speaking, feels more like an account ran by ‘stan’ Twitter. Honestly, a mentality as such is completely incorrect and quite annoying. Feelings are such an important part of being human; feelings are the reason for basically everything that has happened throughout the USA’s history.
For example, from May 2-5 1963, a feeling of unfairness – caused by racial marginalization – created the Children’s Crusade – an event that was sparked by Martin Luther King Jr. and led by thousands of kids (who were arrested while protesting) as a way of fighting against racial segregation. After feeling so deeply disappointed in the actions of the police department in Birmingham, John F. Kennedy signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Another example of the power of feelings was the powerful and infamous 1969 Stonewall riots – an event lead by trans women that single handily changed the LGBT+ community throughout the gay liberation movement. The violent riots took place on June 28, 1969, a day and month that, even now, is still widely celebrated and embraced by the entire community. [The riots] were early morning of June 28 at the Stonewall Inn (a safe space for drag queens, transgender people, effeminate young men, butch lesbians, male prostitutes and homeless youth) after one, of the many, unjust police raid took place. The rest of the story remains an important part of history.
This idea that “feelings don’t matter” is such a tired and old saying by conservatives as a way of making fun of liberals or any sort of person who fights against social injustices. Feelings are everything. Shootings happen because of feelings of disgust, people are killed because of feelings of anger and people have their rights taken because of others in power who have no feelings at all for them. When you’re a minority, all these things matter; they can have a drastic effect on your own life. It’s always about perspective.
