It has been 10 days since the election. There has been and still are lots of talk about the result of the election. Many people are not accepting Donald Trump as president. Thousands of protesters have taken their frustration over Trump’s victory onto the streets. People are voicing concern that a Trump presidency would infringe on American civil rights and liberties. There are many ongoing protest in hope to impeach Donald Trump. At first, I was thinking if this is necessary. Although I am not satisfied with the outcome of the election, I wondered how bad a Trump presidency can be.
I was completely wrong.
One day after Donald Trump was elected as president, there has been so many Trump-inspired incidents. One that shocked me the most happened in my neighborhood. A few students from Fresh Meadows Catholic high school made discriminatory comments towards other students on a MTA bus. This is what happened:
“I was on the bus and this group of girls from St. Francis Prep get on. They look around and looked at me and said ‘Aren’t you people suppose to be sitting in the back of bus?’
I looked around and saw that there were mainly black and Hispanic people sitting in the middle of the the bus. I asked this girl to repeat herself and she says
‘Aren’t you supposed to be sitting in the back of the bus now? Like Trump is president!’”
I was utterly shocked when I saw this post. It was ONLY ONE DAY after the election when this happened. I am truly frightened especially because this happened in my neighborhood. I am worried that my family and my friends might experience this. If my neighborhood, a place I lived in for more than 10 years , isn’t safe I do not know what I’m suppose to do. I came to the realization that it is necessary and crucial to protest against Trump. Everyone should get more involved. More incidents like this is occurring. Muslim women are getting attacked for wearing headscarves. Women are getting insulted and looked down on. There was one incident that I personally witnessed that was appalling. As I was waiting for the 7 train, a man started insulting and pointing at every women in the station and said he is allowed to do this now that Trump is president. It’s ridiculous that women have to fear for their safety in America. Everyone should be allowed to exercise their rights and freedom without fear or influence. I am beyond frightened for what’s to come in the future.
I can definitely empathize with your situation. I, myself, also wondered if things were really going to be as bad as we all seemed to think it would be. However, after listening to various stories that have happened and seeing viral videos across social media platforms, I was also in for a rude awakening. It’s both shocking and sickening to see how hateful people can be and how they feel that they’ve earned the right to be racist, misogynistic, etc. in the wake of Trump’s election. This is especially so when you consider the fact that Trump has done little to nothing to mitigate all of these hate crimes. Also, your mention of the incident on the 7 train particularly hits home for me because I also frequent that train, and to think that something so heinous as that could happen in your own “neighborhood”? It’s really disheartening and, like you said, makes me worry for my own family’s safety. It definitely makes me question our voices in democracy in the fact that someone like Trump managed to get into office.