I am terrified. I am traumatized. I am scared for my life, my mother’s life, my nine siblings’ lives. I am just horrified with the results of this election. What scares me the most is not Trump himself, but the amount of people who support what he says, and how these people go to my school and that of my siblings, live in my neighborhood, work with my mother, and somehow ended up deciding that our lives did not matter.
I am angry. I am furious that the people of our country decided it was the correct choice to vote for a man who discriminates against marginalized groups. He is a racist, sexist, xenophobic, islamophobic, transphobic, homophobic bigot, and the list goes on and on. I am disappointed in this country and its people, and I am tired of everything.
Walking around school on Wednesday felt like seeing a different side to the world with different people in it. So many people were coming out as Trump supporters and I was just baffled– by all of it. All of these people truly believe that my life does not matter. They believe that because of my religion, skin color, and gender that my life does not matter.
One of his supporters is a police officer that is supposed to be protecting my school’s students and faculty. Yet I do not feel safe.
I do not feel safe and this is a problem. It is a problem when people have to question whether they should wear a hijab because they are concerned for their safety. It is a problem because I am scared, and I should not be scared in the country live in. I should not be afraid to express my religion, to embrace my blackness, or to be who I am, and no one else should either.
Yet people have the audacity to say, “Get over it already; complaining about it won’t change anything.” But can we take a second, please? Hours after Trump got elected, people– white people– in my school took to social media and said ’get over it.’ Invalidating the feelings of POC, hours after Trump was elected.
This is something I will have to live with for the next four years of my life. My feelings are valid, and I will not get over it. My feelings are valid. It is valid to feel whatever I feel because for me it is personal. Trump’s campaign was an attack on minorities, he specifically attacked Muslims, and blacks, and women. I am a black, muslim, woman, and my feelings are valid.
