Nemsie Gonzalez
Managing Editor
In the wake of the election, many are scrambling to understand what happened. Social media claims about the death of democracy, the end of America, the beginning of the end filling everyone with dread. But what I am more concerned about is what feels like the death of empathy. It has long been my belief that the United States (U.S.) is not a democracy. When we look at the concept of democracy, we find that the idea of equal participation in voting procedures is impossible within the U.S. With issues of poverty, inequity in our quality of education, voter suppression and bigotry, a true participatory democracy has never been possible here. This inability is wrapped up in the systemic oppression of marginalized groups.
While I had anticipated Trump winning, I was not expecting for the results to be called so soon, going to bed early Tuesday night. Waking up on Wednesday, despite my anticipation, I was filled with anxiety, headlines filling my inbox about a historic landslide.
What’s worse is that even in my so-called liberal home state of California, Californians voted largely to maintain forced labor in our prison systems, upholding the constitution’s exception for slavery and further voted to make repeated theft a felony — policies that will disproportionately affect marginalized communities.
I can’t help but see these consequences as a result of the empathy epidemic we’ve found ourselves in. While media outlets have tried to blame these results on a lack of education, this feels wrongheaded. So much of Trump’s campaign was based in hateful rhetoric towards marginalized communities. In interviews, many Trump supporters pushed false narratives demeaning Kamala Harris by nature of her being a woman and a person of color. It seems to me that Trump won on the basis of his naturalization of bigotry, his dehumanization of BIPOC and his valorization of capitalism.
As a first-generation student, the demonization of individuals with a lack of education feels personal and wrong. My grandma has less than an elementary education and yet voted for Harris on the basis of her empathy for her fellow immigrants. My mother, with her high school level education, took it upon herself to educate herself on the policies and rhetoric of both political candidates, before ultimately choosing Harris.
Even if all you saw were clips on social media, it is evident that Trump is hateful. Yet our society, which gears us to focus on individualism, has pushed us so far to the point where we no longer care about the welfare of our fellow man. As a society, we are so focused on ourselves, and this year’s election reflects these sentiments with so many voters focusing on “lower grocery costs,” “lower taxes” and “an America for the American people.” It is clear to me that we are so focused on separatism!
Immigrants who voted for Trump saw themselves as American before anything else. Women who voted for him valued their national identity over their rights as women. For those who chose to vote for Trump, I can find no other explanation aside from a lack of care for women, for Black people, for immigrants, for queer people, for low income individuals. I will not take indoctrination or ignorance as an excuse because at this point it is willful! Trump supporters choose continuously to look past bigotry and onto their values for capital. Systems of oppression are tied together and the consistent rise of capitalism forces us to neglect our environment, our communities and ourselves. Had we been able to put ourselves in the shoes of those experiencing Trump’s hateful rhetoric, perhaps more of us would’ve been able to stand up for marginalized persons.
It is my hope that now we can begin carrying ourselves as accomplices as opposed to superficial allies. We need to do the hard work of deconstructing the systems of oppression present within our society. We can’t just identify problems but must really attack them, even when it puts us in a position of discomfort. Rather than point fingers on who did what wrong in this election, we need to look inwards and begin to unravel our internalized bigotry. We need to go out of our way to call out those who are being bigoted, like President Anne McCall in her designation of a group of largely Black protestors as causing administration to be in fear of a “mass killing” per the Voice’s Nov. 8 news article, a projection consistent with stereotypes that illustrate Black people as dangerous.
We need to call out our friends who voted for Trump or excused their boyfriends who supported them. We need to go out and participate in mutual aid initiatives. We need to be angry! But, more importantly, we need to learn to identify with one another and care more in general. We need to be more empathetic to the issues of marginalized communities. We need to force ourselves to care about one another. Stop just blaming other people and actually do something. Realize that money is not valuable in and of itself, is the economy important? Yes. Is it the end all be all of how we should construct ourselves and our society? Absolutely not.
To accomplices, and moving beyond allyship.