Dear (white) America, I just can't with you right now.

Dear (White) America,

I just can’t with you right now.  I was not prepared for the range of emotions that I would feel with this election result.  They have vacillated from snarky to angry to downright heartbroken.  I was more optimistic than I realized. I thought we were better than this.  After a cursory look at social media on Wednesday morning, I realized I needed to stay away.  There were too many things that I just couldn’t hear from those who would select a reality tv star to run our country.  There are some things that I don’t ever want to hear again.

1)      Please don’t say we are a Christian country.  Stop lamenting that there is a war on Christmas.  Don’t post your favorite Bible scripture and tell me to trust in God.  God’s greatest commandment is to love one another.  You just elected a man that has repeatedly disrespected and disregarded giant swaths of our population – anyone that is other to him.  Your vote validated his words.  I don’t want to hear that you love everyone.  Your actions speak louder than your words and I hear you screaming at me right now.  You make a mockery of Christianity.

2)      Please don’t tell me not to be fearful.  We live in a country where one in four women can expect to be sexually assaulted in her lifetime.  I have four daughters.  Which one should I be prepared to comfort?  I have lost count of the number of times this year that some (white) man has raped a women and gotten a slap on the wrist because we’d hate to ruin his chances at a great life. My daughters deserve a great life too. You just elected a man that bragged about sexually assaulting women.  How much more emboldened will rapists be to attack my daughters when the President of the United States thinks it is just fine?

3)      Please don’t tell me that we need to put aside our differences and work together.  It is our differences that make us special.  This guy ran a campaign that said different is bad and something to be feared.  Why are you so fearful of difference?  Why can’t we celebrate the different people that make up our country?  Why can’t we demonstrate compassion to those who don’t look and worship like we do?  When you tell people who are different from you to put aside their differences, you devalue them.  You demonstrate through your actions that you don’t believe people of color, people who worship differently than you, people who weren’t born here, people who are different from you have anything of value to give to you.

4)      Please don’t tell me that it is time to make America great again.  The only group that the America of the past has been consistently great to is white men.  At what point in time were we great?  I need to know, so I can know what treatment I can expect from you.  I need to know, so I can be prepared to stand by and use my privilege to protect those who have traditionally been oppressed – people of color, religious minorities, LBGT, and women.  It’s time for you to wake up and realize that greatness is not only contained within white skin.  Until we celebrate the greatness of every individual in our country, we will never be great.

On Wednesday morning, my girls asked me what we are going to do now that Trump is going to be president.  I told them we are going to keep doing what we’ve been doing.  We are going to love one another.  We are going to be kind to others.  We are going to stand beside our friends who might look different than us and feel afraid right now.  We are going to work to make sure everyone feels valued because we are truly stronger together.