I’m done being quiet, my thoughts on the U.S. election

It took me too long to come up with a title for this. It took me too long to figure out what I wanted to say, convey and get across in this post.

Over the past week, the world has been shook to its core. The political progress in America over the past eight years has been somewhat tossed aside, right in the rubbish bin. There’s a rise of hate – and not surprisingly, it’s not limited to America. You can’t say it’s only amongst the uneducated, the backwards towns who’ve been left behind by modern technology and society. You can’t say it hasn’t extended into the depths of the United Kingdom. The Brexit vote was the start, and America quickly followed suit. Shockingly enough, our first world that we live in, holds truly antiquated viewpoints. 

As a middle class, white female, the levels of prejudice that I experience won’t even parallel to my peers who are black, who are Muslim, who are LGBT and who are minorities. Prior to this year’s election, I foolishly held the belief that we lived in a progressive society. One that faces less racism, less discrimination and less sexism. I know it exists in pockets, of course, but I didn’t realise to what deep rooted extent it had come to.

I can’t understand what it’s like to be discriminated based on race, religion, or sexuality. I can understand what it’s like to be a woman in our society and to experience, sexism and experience discrimination for being a woman. My examples are few and far in between, but they’re becoming shockingly more commonplace in this post-election, post-Brexit society.

I wrote a blog post the other day, a sponsored post. This isn’t out of the ordinary. Blogging is both my hobby, and my way to earn extra to fund travels, to fund living in London. This week I received my first actual negative comment that directly correlates to this year’s election:

“SHILLING FOR (COMPANY NAME). A NEW LOW. #CROOKEDKELLY #BLOODMONEY”

Excuse me, but what the actual fuck.

Typically, I wouldn’t think twice and laugh it off, but what got me about this one was that is has been based off the rhetoric used by Donald Trump in the presidential election. The connotation of “Crooked Hillary”. #CrookedKelly

Is that what our society is about? An actual physical person has gone on to comment on a 20 something’s fun lifestyle blog with no intention other than to belittle. No. I’m an actual #GirlBoss who works her ass off at a full time job and then continues in my free time to build my own empire.

And that’s just directed at me. I’m not the only one to experience harassment online. Of course, it doesn’t stop there. We see it on the tube, we see it in boardrooms. Discrimination is everywhere. To be honest, it’s about time we actually started doing something about it.

On Friday night there were three (drunk) men who got on the tube. One started speaking to the woman next to him. She wasn’t responding, obviously. He wasn’t saying anything derogatory, but hey, she didn’t want to talk to him. Take a hint. He didn’t.

There was another point in time when I wouldn’t say anything. I would look at my phone, mind my own business. It wasn’t a particularly dangerous situation. His friends had told him to stop being an idiot. But he didn’t stop being an idiot. He kept speaking to her. So yeah, I said something. “She doesn’t want to talk to you, so you should probably leave her alone now.” In this situation, I ended up embarrassing him for calling him out and he apologised. His friends then thought it was hysterical that a woman on the tube had told him off. The woman stayed quiet, until she got off the tube and looked at me and mouthed ‘Thank you’. Luckily this wasn’t a dangerous experience. Luckily this wasn’t a tense situation. But it still happened and it shouldn’t be ignored.

I have seen more dangerous ones before. I’ve stayed quiet out of fear. But it’s not the time to stay quiet anymore. It’s time our voices are heard. It’s time that we stop accepting this hatred. I don’t accept that someone who has instilled such hate in America is fit to be a leader. I don’t care how many people say he said those things ‘just to get the vote’. Trump isn’t a stupid man. He prayed upon a country seeking a change and he prayed upon a demographic that feels left behind. I understand that.

I don’t understand how people however can support a man who incites hate speech.

We have the power to stop it. We can make sure it doesn’t happen. We can be kind to our neighbors. We can build others up. Not fucking walls. We can shake hands, give hugs and be brave enough to accept differences in cultures. We can support our peers, the young, the old. We can make sure that this doesn’t happen again, and we can fight like hell for the next four years to have our voices heard.

I refuse to stay silent on this any longer. I’ve always held back on politics. I don’t comment on Facebook. I don’t push my views on anyone else. But it’s not about pushing views. It’s about helping others understand why this isn’t OK.

I live overseas and I voted. Someday, I plan to move back to America. I’m proud to be an American. I’m not proud that a large part of the population voted without considering their friends, their neighbors, their families, their colleagues and their communities. We can make a difference. We just can’t be quiet about it.

Friends, we’ve all been effected by this election. It’s time for us to stand together, I’m here for you.

I’m done being quiet and I hope you join me.

Kelly xoxo