The most heated and anticipated election has finally come to a close. It didn’t go without wild antics, personal insults and scandal. In the end, Donald Trump is able to say that he’ll be the 45th President of the United States.
The 2016 election was marred with inept candidates. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were bottom of the barrel picks. We were forced to choose from vomit or diarrhea; both options stunk. However, that ship has came and sailed. We can’t rewind time and re-select the candidates. There’s no going back.
Trump’s antics were are outrageous. I think most can agree with that. Those outrageous antics, fear tactics, blunt unfiltered views and separation from being a politician were probably reasons for his triumphant Tuesday night/Wednesday early morning.
Now we’re faced with the question of “What Now?” It’s the same question we would ask ourselves if Hillary was named the winner. We can all concur that the next four years will be interesting to say the least.
What now? What’s going to happen? Many minorities are already fearful of the repercussions of Donald Trump becoming president. With his disparaging comments towards Hispanics and Muslim Arabs it’s obvious why they are fearful. Trump’s support of the Stop-and-Frisk proposal, which (in my opinion) is an indirect way to racially and even class profile. His support of this proposal, alone, is grounds to be wary of the new POTUS. African-Americans will be targeted, let’s just be honest. Arabs, Hispanics and even those people who are of the low income class will be profiled.
I think the realization of the election hits minorities much differently than to whites. We cannot say for sure, just yet, if Donald Trump will go through with all the things he spoke about during his campaign. Think of if the roles were reversed. What if an African-American, Indian-American, Arab-American or Latino-American was campaigning around the United States, speaking illy of whites actually won the election. Whites would probably have a sick feeling in the pit of their stomach the day after the shock set in.
It’s unfortunate that in this day and time, racial prejudice is still a pertinent issue. If things were to get any worse, we’d be inching closer and closer to the 1960s. An era plagued by civil rights injustice. We’ve come a long way since then. Things are still far from perfect, but the times have changed and any indication that we may be heading backwards in ideology is worth being worrisome about.
What people can do, whether you’re black, white, yellow, brown, tan or blue, is come together and let your voices be heard. Destructive protesting and violence won’t solve the problem. Neither will shunning someone simply because of the color of their skin, religion or disability. If those who are against Trump and feel that he is unfit to have control of our control do not effectively speak out and become vocalist for change then we’re stuck with four years of head scratching and “what’s next?” questioning. The only way we can promote change if not changing how things are altogether is to put our First Amendment right to use and speak out. Unless you’re content with the outcome, that is…
Josh Blake Writes 