The Dangers of Passive Bigotry

Immediately after the election results were announced, people from all factions of the American political sphere began to call for people to come together. We have been told that we must bridge the divide and reach out, to repair our broken nation. On the surface this sentiment is heartwarming. I’m sure all of those people preaching about how we must learn to understand and forgive one another mean the best. I too am upset by how divided this nation is and how disconnected I am from a very large proportion of it. For the sake of the country that I love and for my own sake I hope that Donald Trump is a successful president, despite the many reservations I continue to have about his competency. That said, to spout idealistic pleasantries and to ask both sides of this political divide that is so clearly personal to just drop their hurt and accept an upsetting status quo silences our populace and skates over the problems that are causing this divide.

"I still have faith that the vast majority of people in this nation hope to build a society in which all people can live freely and without fear."

When Donald Trump was elected as the president of the United States, I, like many other Americans, felt heartbroken and betrayed. In electing a misogynist who openly admitted to groping and kissing women without their consent, who has repeatedly objectified women and taunted them based off of their physical appearances, who called for women to be “grabbed by the p***y,” my nation condoned his behavior and announced that such conduct is acceptable. Agency over my body was taken away from me. In saying that such behavior is acceptable, my nation told me that my body belongs to any old man who wishes to “grab me by the p***y.” The day following the election, I was filled with fear. Who in my home thinks that such behavior is tolerable? Who of the people that I trust would stand by as I or one of my sisters is sexually assaulted, just as over 50 million Americans not only stood by as a man promoted such behavior, but elected that man to the most powerful office of the world? I felt nauseated all day. I continue to feel sickened that my brethren would betray me and many others like that.I can’t begin to fathom the pain that others in this nation must’ve felt on that night. Despite the upset I felt, I remain in a position of great privilege. As an agnostic, straight, wealthy, natural-born and white-passing woman, I don’t have to live in fear of homophobia, racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia as many of my fellow Americans now do. I can’t even begin to imagine the heartbreak felt by those who were told by their nation that it’s OK for them to be tortured until they’re willing to renounce their sexuality, or that people of their race are “murderers and rapists,” or that people of their religion are inherently prone to acts of violence. I will never be able to comprehend the pain felt by those who now see their attackers emboldened, bigots of all forms crawling out of their closets to hurl slurs and, in some cases, stones, to announce their hatred to the rest of the world.To ask those Americans who were hurt in this way to get over the ugliness behind Trumpism and accept that this is the state of our nation is to silence the survivors of bigotry. This in turn emboldens the misogynists, racists, homophobes, xenophobes and Islamophobes of the world. I still have faith that the vast majority of people in this nation hope to build a society in which all people can live freely and without fear. I believe this of those who voted to take away my body, of those who declared a fear of my Islamic, Hispanic and immigrant friends in their votes. That dream that I and so many others have of a nation in which we all coexist peacefully will never come to fruition until the fears we have of each other are confronted, and the pain felt by our populace is acknowledged and hurt. To silence those targeted by Trumpism is to be complicit in their oppression. To ignore bigotry is to be complicit in it. It’s a passive bigotry, but bigotry nonetheless. For the sake of us all, reject silence and speak.