Posted on 12/26/2016 10:15:39 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
I watched the election results in Emory University’s Black Student Union with Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book and gospel playing in the background. There was a table full of cupcakes, salsa and chips, and pizza; I sat with my French workbook in my lap. Every time a red state was taken a prayer was said, and the mood became more somber. I jumped out of my chair when Virginia, my home state, pulled through as blue for the third year in a row.
I have never been naïve about elections. I grew up in a battleground state. My parents taught me that, as an African American woman, my vote is my voice. And on the day of the election my French and English professors repeated the message we’d all been told: that Hillary could win. They chose to believe the liberal atmosphere of our Atlanta, Georgia school could be replicated across America.
Instead, on election night—my first election I could vote in—I slid further and further down in my chair in agony. At midnight, the building closed and we were asked to leave. A sick feeling settled over me as I migrated to the viewing party in my dorm. I should’ve known then what would happen next. For the most part, Emory is a liberal school. We do have our Young Republicans, and not everyone calls themselves a feminist, and some might believe we live in a post-racial society. But those groups were once in the quiet minority, and election night redefined my campus just as it did the country.
The lines between my school’s liberalism and Georgia’s widespread conservatism became much blurrier November 9.
As it became obvious that Trump would take the White House, his supporters made themselves known, going to their rooms and coming back with signs and “Make America Great Again” hats. Sadness settled over me as I retreated to my own room. I had made the choice to go to college in the Deep South. But the lines between my school’s liberalism and Georgia’s widespread conservatism became much blurrier November 9. And it changed the way I—as a black woman, a liberal, a visitor to the South—interact with the world around me.
I woke up on November 9 to multiple texts from my friends, telling me to be safe. They had came to the same realization I had: I am a black college student in a part of the country where a a lot of people had just made it very clear that they do not respect my skin color. Safety was on their minds. That day the city skyline was covered by fog and the sky was gray. Most students wore black in mourning, and to show solidarity with minority students (myself included) who felt that Trump’s election represented the suppression of our freedoms. But I wore one of my empowering outfits: a tan, long sweater over a blue jean dress with new ankle boots. I was determined to be strong.
Suddenly I was hit with the realization that I was living in a different world.
On Wednesday a silent protest march cut through the circle of usual activity and snaked across campus. I watched the march in silent appreciation. The sea of black went right by a table of Young Republicans celebrating Trump’s victory. Maybe they did not pay any attention to the protesters because America was “great again” for them and that was all that mattered. Suddenly I was hit with the realization that I was living in a different world.
In the weeks since Doomsday my life has become framed in an entirely different way. I’m both a majority and a minority now. My liberal views, shared by my college, make me a part of the majority there. But I am part of a minority because I am a black student at a predominantly white school. And since the election, I’m more aware that I’m part of another minority: a member of a liberal campus in a southern state in Trump’s America. I do not like to be put into boxes, but this is my reality now.
To be a black student on a liberal campus in a red state means I live a life of cognitive dissonance.
My first election made me question whether I actually have a voice in this country. To be in a red state as a minority student means my dignity felt stripped away. The fact that American voters supported Trump’s hate speech made feel threatened; some of his rhetoric was directed against my black skin. My identity feels more expendable to America now, as if my ancestors had not helped build this country. So I’ve been finding ways to make my identity an integral part of my academic journey, whether that’s by writing an English essay on race or picking up an African American Studies course for the spring semester.
To be a black student on a liberal campus in a red state means I am living a life of cognitive dissonance. My campus, where I feel loved and wanted, is situated in a state where many people have been taught to hate those who look like me. And even some kinds of conservatism, previously rare in my Emory bubble, have seeped onto campus. While I acknowledge the conservative and racist factions in my country, I do not accept them. I am so grateful for the opportunity to study at my school but I cannot turn a blind eye to to world at large. I must defend my beliefs and my rights even more now because the election results ultimately made me more of a minority.
As an African American woman, I have always experienced a certain type of alienation, but after the election, that feeling has expanded. To function on a daily basis, I feel my mentality slipping into one that would be appropriate for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. It is a confusing difference to navigate and one that is more and more apparent every day since November 9. Ultimately, to be a black woman at Emory in the middle of a red state means I am becoming a new type of Freedom Fighter.
Campus and local law enforcement should be aware of this young person’s deranged mental state. It seems quite likely that she will hate-crime herself when she realizes nobody else can be bothered.
I hope she doesn’t seriously injure herself, like that sad case in Louisiana where the young woman set herself on fire.
Edit that to being more a Child of God
Wondrously Made, Loved so much that He Gave
His only Begotten Son to Save Her
She might learn Humility and Gratitude
Without the God's Eye View, she is lost,
just like everyone else, without Him
My comment?
An example of how our colleges and universities are specializing more and more in turning out nothing but intellectually-inbred thumb-suckers and snot-gobblers.
The entire secondary education system is due a serious rethink.
“other minorities in the USA like Koreans, Japanese, Indians, Chinese, Jews, et al. don’t have time for all this kind of self-absorbed navel-gazing? They just get on with life”
Which is why their home countries are not entirely third-world cesspools like the African nations are.
You see, if people had voted for Hillary Clinton, it would have shown that they respected the author’s skin color.
>>I woke up on November 9 to multiple texts from my friends, telling me to be safe. They had came to the same realization I had: I am a black college student in a part of the country where a a lot of people had just made it very clear that they do not respect my skin color. Safety was on their minds.
Oh puhleeze. This little snowflake is safer among White Trump supporters than she is in many Black parts of the Atlanta area, and if she doesn’t believe that, she needs to pay more attention to the local news about what’s really going on in the world around her just outside her safe space campus.
This SJW Big Lie meme about Trump supporters being a danger to the safety of minorities is complete hogwash, and the growing number of documented fake “Trump supporter” hate crimes is testament to this fact. These fools and liars have almost nothing in the way of real, documented violent crimes perpetrated by Trump supporters for political reasons.
I’m sick of their whining, and would tell this little flake the same to her face were I to meet her.
I’ll say it.
Men and women were meant to bond and have children.
This lady needs a good man!
I live and work in Atlanta and enjoy it wholeheartedly. 50% of Atlanta population is African-American, city mayor is Kareem Reed and, in my opinion, he does a great job. On the Election Day while heading home from work, I’ve observed an African-American gentleman, in his 60s or 70s, standing on North Street near the entrance to 75/85 highway holding a sign: “Blacks, where are the jobs? Vote Trump!” Maybe the idiot from Emory should talk to him about her grievances...
Not to mention that she appears unaware that Virginia is a southern state.
Drama major?
Trump’’s message to her and others of the same liberal mindset...suck it up, buttercups and either get on the Trump train to make this country great again (yes, your help is both wanted and needed) or get out of the way. Your choice, but the days of living off others and constantly being offended ad aggrieved, is over. Trump wants EVERYONE to be successful, but wants EVERYONE to work hard for it, not waste or squander opportunities.
“My first election made me question whether I actually have a voice in this country.”
She’s confusing having a voice with being in control of the whole shebang.
She still has a voice and nobody’s trying to deprive her of it. But she’ll be required to allow other voices to be heard, and that ticks her off.
Tough cookies.
I am a 76 year old Texas woman and I can assure this person that I was NOT raised to hate black people! I did not teach my children to hate them and my grandchildren have not been taught to hate them!
This woman was wrongly taught this and it is a Lie!
As I read, there were several areas where she could have said “but....it’s been a month and I haven’t been attacked. I see that the conservatives seem to have good ideas and might just be on to something something i can support”. But no, more of the same.
Schadenboner. I has one.
L
“African American women: the most biased, one-sided voting group in the United States. By far.”
This goes waaaaay back.
I was at my class reunion in 1979 and we were discussing teacher layoffs in the Boston Public Schools.(Most at the table were teachers.)
There was one African American woman at our table and she said,”They wouldn’t DARE lay me off,they wouldn’t dare.”
I was astonished,but now it’s become routine.
.
in Trump's America, where people are free, learn how to be productive and you will be rewarded
Really?
You seem to be awfully eager to put others into 'boxes', evidently without regard for reality or truth.
You have swallowed a "narrative" hook, line, and sinker.
Perhaps if you're lucky, someday, either during the journey or after you've grown up and learned to act like an adult, you will pick up some critical thinking skills which will help you to cleanse your spirit of your prejudices and stereotyped view of "the other", and learn to handle reality the way that other adults do.
Young racist fool
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