Acceptance

November 2016

[Originally posted on Medium]

Look, I get it. Trump won.

I accept it. I’m not whining. I’m not rioting.

And I get it. There are millions of working class people across the country that felt left behind in Obama’s America. They wanted change.

And I get it. It wasn’t about race.

And you especially, I don’t think you’re racist because you voted for Trump. Truly.

But please don’t insult my intelligence by telling me that race wasn’t part of Trump’s campaign.

Please understand why as a black man I’m scared about the next four years in Trump’s America.

Am I supposed to forget that he spent years on the national stage as the leader of the birther movement?

Am I supposed to forget that he started his campaign labeling Mexicans as criminals and rapists?

Am I supposed to forget about all the other times he used racially tinged rhetoric on the campaign trail?

Am I supposed to forget what he said about Judge Gonzalo Curiel?

Am I supposed to forget what he said about the Central Park Five?

Am I supposed to forget all the times he retweeted messages from white supremacists and neo-Nazis?

Am I supposed to forget he hired Steve Bannon, a pivotal figure in the alt-right community, as CEO of his campaign?

Am I supposed to forget his calls for banning Muslims?

Am I supposed to forget his calls to bring back stop and frisk?

Should I go on?

Or did I miss the time that he apologized for any of these things? Where he reached out to the disaffected to clarify his position?

Or did I miss the time when he clearly denounced the acts of intimidation and violence against minorities carried out in his name?

Don’t think I’m pacified because he added Ben Carson to his transition team.

Don’t think I’m pacified because you point out something racist someone else said or did, someone who’s not going to be our president.

Don’t tell me Trump only said horribly racist things and appealed to white nationalists just to get elected. That he didn’t really mean those things.

Don’t tell me he’s really going to be a president for all the people.

Don’t tell me to deal with it.

Don’t tell me to shut up.

That, I do not accept.