For some it was the night we all waited for a while for others, it was the night we possibly will dread for the next four years. Sadly, it turned out to be the latter.
I can’t lie, leading up to election night, I was skeptical about both candidates. On one hand, you had Hillary Clinton who in my opinion, wasn’t the most trustworthy candidate. Many millennials couldn’t take her seriously in comparison to Bernie Sanders who seemed to have our interest going back to the primaries.
On the other hand… you had a man who, like most of America, believes that his run president was a joke when he announced that he was running during the summer of 2015. I didn’t take Trump seriously at all! and to make matters worse, the divisive rhetoric he preached angered me as an African-American male. Myself along with women, Muslims and Mexicans were all unfairly targeted throughout his campaign.
You would think that our country wouldn’t stand for such hate speech, but his campaign proved otherwise. I was surprised to see the amount of support he was able to receive during his campaign. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was a total nightmare. We can argue that more people should have voted, or individuals shouldn’t have voted for a third party, but sadly we can’t go back and change what happens. What’s done is done.
I would be lying to you all if I said that I wasn’t scared. I fear that his election as President will give confidence to a select group of individuals to spew unnecessary hate and further divide a nation that is in desperate need of healing. I don’t know what to tell the kids I teach, the international students who came to this country expecting it to be the land of the free.
I just hope that in due time we can come together.