The 2020 election was a high-stakes election, and we’ve watched organizers mobilize for the past couple of months in order to encourage people to vote; and it worked, because the voter turnout rate was historic for this election.
We cast our votes and then the waiting period started.
There was nothing left to do but wait, and we remained glued to our television and phone screens for days following election day, anticipating the results, and growing more stressed and anxious as the days passed. On Saturday morning, November 7th, 2020, we received the news that Biden had reached the 270 electoral votes he needed to officially be considered a President-elect. There was an immediate shift in the air as the country let out a collective sigh of relief, and people took out to the streets to celebrate the end of a Trump presidency. The end of a Trump presidency is definitely a step in the right direction towards positive change, everything is not going to magically turn around now that Biden is president.
The reality is that despite the loud outspoken cries against another Trump term, he still had significant support, in fact, he seemed to have gained even more support when it came to votes in comparison to the 2016 election, especially among white voters. Exit polls conducted by Edison Research found that 61% of white men voted for Trump, and 55% of white women voted for Trump, representing at least a two-point increase for this demographic since the 2016 election.
The 2020 presidential race was too close for comfort, and despite the atrocities that Trump has conducted throughout his four years as President, his support base is still going strong. POC groups organized and mobilized to turn states Blue for Biden, however it is clear that Black women especially single-handedly carried the election in favor of Biden, with 90% of them voting for Biden at the polls.
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I’ve had mixed feelings throughout the past few months regarding the election. Of course, I wanted Trump out, but I wondered, is it truly going to get better with him out of office? What I worry most about now is that people will slip back into complacency.
Now that we have a President who is not Trump, who is not loudly outspoken against marginalized groups, will people begin to slowly stop caring again? These are longstanding issues that have existed before Trump was elected as President, but the problem is that many people were oblivious to the plight of marginalized groups, until Trump gave people the courage to be openly racist, homophobic, and xenophobic. These people have always been present, but Trump gave them the courage to be open without any social repercussions, in fact, they were encouraged. With Biden being the new Presidential elect, these people will slip back into the shadows and their voices will not be as loud, but they are not to be forgotten.
The harsh truth is that harm against Black people, Indigenous people, the LGBTQIA+ community, and other marginalized groups will continue to occur, regardless of the governing political party being republican or democratic. As much as we want to believe that the democratic party is full of well-meaning and well-intentioned politicians, this is not always the reality. Politicians do not always have the best interests of the people at heart, oftentimes, they serve the interest of the ruling class, their corporate sponsors and the corporations who paid for their campaigns. It’s easy to name every bad thing Trump has done over the last four years, but the democratic party has also done harm to marginalized groups. The Obama administration played a huge role in destabilizing the Middle East and was responsible for mass deportation efforts at the US-Mexican border. Biden supported the 1994 Crime Bill, which caused mass incarceration against the Black community and Vice-President-elect Harris has also put her fair share of Black and brown people in jail for minor drug offenses when she served as a prosecutor in California. The basic message is that we should not always rely on political systems to create the change we want to see in the world. It’s time we learn how to build a better world through community organizing and activism.
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Now is not the time to go back to living your “normal lives,” there is still work to be done. If you are not able to think of any ways that you would be affected whether it’s under a Trump or Biden administration, you should evaluate the privilege you have because this is a position that many POC and marginalized groups cannot relate to.
Many marginalized groups were faced with having to make the choice of choosing “the lesser of two evils,” knowing that at the end of the day they would still potentially face harm regardless. The struggle of Black and Brown people is not just a hot topic that you can bring up when there’s an election and you’re trying to get a politician into or out of office, not just a hot topic that you can leisurely read for your entertainment, the struggles of these communities are real and ongoing. Find out about how you can get involved with the work of marginalized communities, join grassroots movements and organizations, center the voices of Black women and other POC organizers and learn from them. A person’s journey with feminism and antiracism should be lifelong, in order to truly be antiracist and feminist, you must consciously make the effort to learn and unlearn everything that you thought you knew about the world. It’s not feminism if it only serves the interests of your social/economic class and race, it’s not feminism if you’re not uplifting the voices of Trans and Black women and fighting for their rights too.
Celebrate the end of a Trump presidency, and allow yourself to feel relief, but don’t allow yourself to slip back into complacency when we need you the most. Now is when the real work begins, and it’s time to buckle up and get ready to put in the work.