We're now a bit over a month past the Nov 2016 election and a week post-Electoral College. I will be posting my thoughts about the election in the near future, but wanted to start by talking about a very disconcerting consequence of the election.
The election of Barack Obama led to people and the media talking about a "post-racial" America. While Obama's election as President did show how far America has come since its founding, it hardly meant the country was in a post-racial period. This was best exemplified by a variety of race-based issues, such as police shootings, that flared up during the Obama years. However, more importantly, the manner in which candidate Donald Trump ran his campaign clearly showed that we are far from being "post-racial." While I don't want to sound like I'm saying that all Trump supporters are racists, it's very clear that the language used by Trump and his campaign and their refusal to acknowledge the consequences of the language they've used has allowed fringe groups to come out of the shadows and use the language of the campaign as a vehicle to push their agendas and attempt to exert their influence again.
This has led to increased activities by these various groups and has resulted in an alarming spike in post-election racist-based incidents across the country. These incidents have sadly engulfed people of all colors, creed, and age. I have never seen this level of racist activity since my childhood. However, what has been even more alarming is the deafening silence and, in some cases, participation of our political leaders. Democrats are too busy trying to figure out what happened in the election, assigning blame, and laying out plans for their political future. Republicans are too busy trying to figure out how to exploit their current majorities and how they fit into the coming Trump era. The President-elect himself has been nearly silent on this issue, other than a brief "stop it" mentioned in a 60-Minutes interview.
I have previously talked about lack of political leadership and we're seeing a prime example here. It is sad to me that members of both political parties have put party loyalty and party survival above the good of the country. The increase in racist activity needs a strong response from our political leadership, not the echos of silence that we are currently hearing. In particular, President-elect needs to be more vocal about this issue, if he wants to prevent his legacy from being tainted by the activities of these groups.
However, in parallel, we need to educate Americans that America is not White, it's not Black, it's not Hispanic, it's not Asian, it's not Native American, it's not any other ethnic/racial group....it's ALL of them. The same thing can be said about religion or any other aspect of our country. America exists and is a great nation because of its diversity. As such, there needs to be a better appreciation of this important component of our country. In particular, people have to stop living in their various bubbles and start reaching out across political party, ethnic/racial, and religious ideologies to build those bridges that will help us all understand and appreciate others.
Since our political leaders do not seem to care about what's been happening, it's time for Americans to stand up and fight these injustices. Recall our Constitution starts with "We the people..." and it's time for we the people to fill the void created by our political leaders and work towards creating a truly post-racial America.
#LetsMakeAmericaBuenoAgain
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