Some facts: my daughter, an American citizen, was talking in Spanish to an adult in a parking lot when a person drove by them and yelled “go back to your country!”
Many instances of racial discrimination were happening in the States, I will describe just a few. At the University of Pennsylvania, the names of several black freshmen students were added to a mailing list put together by a racist group. Some of them received messages like “dumb slave”, “go back to Africa”, “Grab them by the P…Y”. Swastikas were painted on the walls of a middle school bathroom, a Muslim female student at the University of New Mexico was forced to remove her hijab. Many students are being asked “do you belong here?” and for the first time they don’t know how to answer. (1)
Some college and university professors have cancelled classes and exams because they argue that many students and professors were so distressed, shocked and surprised by the election results that they needed time to cope with the situation. The first logic moment of seeing was there. The situation was surprising and we will all need some time to understand this. Unfortunately, it will not be easy to reach a conclusion so soon.
Why did this surprise me? The America I thought I knew embraced diversity, and was a place for everybody. These were the values that brought me here. This is a country where people normally feel safe to walk and talk. People did not use to fear violence on the streets, and there has been little tolerance for bullying, racism and aggression. For the past eight years, ever since a black president was elected, he country has been showing more progress,advocating for women rights, gay marriage, and new ways for people to identify themselves. Some people for example said “we are not LGBT so let’s add a Q”. An ABC of inclusivity could eventually be constructed with the revolution of diversity, as long as the social and political discourse allowed it.
For the first time in 20 years I questioned my election process. My love, my transference, probably some idealized version I had of this country, has failed. Something was broken and probably not only for me. The surprise, the contingency confronted me with a Real I need to work on.
I also see people on the streets, saying “we have power, we can speak and be heard. Don’t break our values because we have a voice that needs to be heard. We will not be silent.” Listen to this phrase, “we will not be silent.” If only this reality could wake people up and push them to work for an ideal. If only Millennials, society, minorities, etc, finally had something to work for together besides their entrepreneurship… Oh I’m sorry. I am a believer, I need to go to sleep, so I can be awake.