Those who thrive on hate and prejudice never went away. People just weren’t paying attention.
Upon learning that a little less than half of the nation chose to vote for current President-elect Donald Trump, many people across the internet spilled their feelings in the form of think-pieces and long-winded Facebook essays (something I may have been guilty of). One popular discussion point was the idea of social regression. Forced to sift through dozens upon dozens of essays written by self-proclaimed Liberals, I noticed one common phrase: “I can’t believe we’ve reverted back to the 1950s!”
A common misconception among most Americans is that prejudice disappeared when President Obama was elected in 2008. With same sex-marriage privileges granted to all states, and a rise of black and brown faces in the media, the concept of a progressive society began to emerge. True, there were many more advances in regards to the rights of the “other.” President Obama’s election did prove that we are moving forward as a country. However, citizens of color and members of the LGBT community never stopped being victims of prejudice. As of the time I am writing this, there have been over 81 recorded murders of transgender people in America since 2008. In 2016, there have been at least 21 recorded murders targeting the trans community. Straight, cisgender men were typically those held responsible, and many of the victims were transwomen of color. In 2015, the FBI released their annual hate crime statistics. Of the 5,818 reported incidents in America, 59.2% were racially/ethnically driven, 19.7% were religiously driven, and 17.7% were sexuality driven. In 2015, local law enforcement killed 346 unarmed Black Americans, and 97% of those accused were not held accountable. Protests and rallies have swept the nation, most of which were brought on by violence against minority communities. Citizens of color and members of the LGBT community have been voicing their concerns against oppression for many years… the problems never disappeared. In fact, many of the frustrations vocalized by these marginalized communities are written off as just complaints or hypersensitivity. Even now, the bigotry spreading across the nation after the Trump win has been heavily normalized and dressed up as just a “conflict of differing opinions” rather than a battle for humanity.
Thus, when the final election results were revealed, and America illustrated just how much a platform based on hate and exclusion could prosper, I found myself incredibly disappointed…but not at all surprised.