The night of November 8th brought many surprises to some Americans. Slowly, we saw Republicans winning the majority of House seats. Then, they slowly won the majority of Senate seats. Finally, it was confirmed in the early hours of the 9th that Donald Trump was now our president-elect. As people awoke that morning, the realization that this bigot, racist, misogynistic and xenophobic man would be our next president set in along with panic and sadness.
There were many think pieces, millions of tweets and protests organizing as people tried processing their emotions and thoughts. It came as a shock as last poll numbers had Clinton winning. While I also dealt with the outcome, I saw Trump fans celebrating. I saw that they were my family or family friends; also older and white and straight and middle class. They lived in the South and believed heavily in Jesus. I bit my tongue, but it became more difficult each minute with news stories of hate crimes and crisis hotline calls rising.
The phones at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline saw an increase in volume two to three times of what it normally is just in the early hours of the 9th. The Crisis Text Line also increased that night and continued as days went on. Another thing that is on the rise is hate crimes. With remarks that Trump has made and his and his supporters behavior at rallies, it was something that was, sadly, expected. While there’s no accurate tracker of hate crimes (for example, the report for hate crimes in 2015 just came out this November. There still was a 67% rise in hate crimes in the past year, mainly against Muslims), there have been many reports. Over 300 incidents of harassment or intimidation have been reported since election night, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
While there are over 300 incidents, there were only so many that could be confirmed independently and became more well known. At the University of Michigan, a Muslim student told police a white male demanded she remove her hijab or he would set her on fire. At a Jacksonville, Florida high school, a picture showing “Whites Only” and “Colored” signs above water fountains went viral. There have also been reports of swastikas being drawn on churches and “Make American White Again” written on a softball field. It’s being found on campuses and a number of social media platforms like GroupMe or Snapchat too. Some have even turned physical as well. A male Trump supporter punched a lady in the face at a Brooklyn restaurant after not agreeing with him. There’s also a video of a man pushing an anti-Trump protester down a flight of stairs as he gave a peaceful speech. I could continue, but we’d be here all day.
A new poll from Gallup shows four in ten are afraid after the election and were quite shocked as results came in. So as we wait till January for Trump to take office, we can only hope (and take some action) in ensuring the hate crimes come to and end.
