Yesterday, I was watching the election results at my college of public health. While watching the results come in, I looked at my friend and said to her that if Donald Trump won, I would literally cry. As soon as I said that a man told me that it made no difference who won the election. I was dumbfounded that someone in a school of public health would have no foresight and tell a person of color such a statement.
From the moment that Donald Trump decided to run for the presidency, my heart skipped many beats knowing that a vitriolic and dangerous man who wanted the represent the “people” had so much animosity toward minority communities. Donald Trump’s rise to power was at the expense of people who came from marginalized backgrounds. As a multiple minority, I face an added burden and concern worrying about the new policies that will be created that may threaten my own existence.
Donald Trump promised that he would repeal the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare.” When I worked for Mental Health America, I saw the change in peoples’ lives when they received affordable coverage for the first time. For me, the statute in which insurance companies had to provide coverage for people who had pre-existing conditions, and that coverage for mental health had to be analogous to coverage to “physical” health, alleviated a financial burden for my own mental health services. My medication, which costs seven-hundred dollars a month was reduced to forty dollars. My visits to the psychiatrist and therapist that would add up to three hundred dollars a month was also diminished to an affordable price.
When the electoral count kept increasing, my first thought was whether my mental health would suffer because of a Trump presidency.
In a time in which as a Black man I am constantly concerned about whether a police officer may arrest me just for being Black, Donald Trump’s rhetoric and supporters solidified and exposed the racial divide that exists in our country. The Trump camp has also been very explicit on their beliefs about “Black Lives Matter.”
The negation of Black lives by dismissing the campaign and positing that “all lives matter” and “blue lives matter (police)” serves to further marginalize and erase the nuanced experiences of African-Americans in this country. The Obama administration, Department of Justice, and other stakeholders have actively sought to call attention to the racist practices of the police force. Now, I am left to wonder if the modern-day lynching of African-Americans will get worse in an administration in which Rudy Giuliani was a champion of “stop and frisk” that targeted African-Americans and Latinos.
As a gay minority, I am also concerned about my right to marry, employment discrimination, and other protective rights. Donald Trump will become the leader of the free world in January, and thus will have power to nominate Supreme Court Justices that can overturn important liberal policies that could affect many of our communities. His Vice President, Mike Pence, has a terrible track record of opposing marriage equality and other anti-LGBT legislation.
We have come such a long way by the repealing of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” achieving marriage equality, and fighting for the rights of transgender students. But now, I am left questioning what will happen to the future of LGBT rights.
Lastly, I fear for my friends who are immigrants, undocumented, or even have a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that was passed through the Obama administration as an executive action to grant protection to immigrants. Many of their families fled their countries due to political turmoil, human rights abuses, and a search for a better life. I am worried for all the people I have worked with who are in danger of getting deported and having their families separated. I am afraid of what can happen to one of my best friends and the America she will be experiencing in the years to come.
Today, I cry.
I cry for my friends, I cry for my brother, I cry for my family, I cry for communities of color I may not belong to, I cry for myself, and I cry for the future of this country. These coming few days are going to be heartbreaking for many of us who have felt targeted by this year’s election.
And if you are someone who believes that it “doesn’t matter” if Trump got elected, then I ask of you to step aside and listen to the people who are worried about their future and existence in the United States of America.
Photo taken by Michael Vadon
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