Today, I wore black. I wore black to mourn for my nation, for all of the great things it is, for all it has been and all that Americans have strived and fought to make it.
Today, I wore black because I am a woman. I wore black because I am a woman who has been sexually assaulted and has repeatedly dealt with men who have felt that they have had a right to say or do as they please to me, my body and my mind. I wore black because I’d rather be a nasty woman than a woman who allows men to just step all over me. I’d rather be called Miss Piggy than live up to the unrealistic standards of beauty within our society, if that isn’t clear, I’m fine with who I am and it is not my problem if someone else is not. I have been employed by a man who made sure that skinny, “pretty” women were the faces the public dealt with, while the less desirable women were given grunt work in places where they would remain unseen. At the same place, I was paid less than male counterparts and often worked twice as hard. I received no raises, while I watched male counterparts receive them. I was told that there would never be a female driver working at this place of business because women and I quote “couldn’t do it as well as a man”. I wore black because I’m a woman who is morally opposed to abortion, but thinks that other women have a right to choose and that topic was not only covered during a presidential debate, but covered so poorly and with such ignorance. There was discussion of changing laws surrounding this topic, and should that happen, I will wear black to mourn for the women who are forced to have back alley abortions as a result, which are physically and emotionally unsafe in comparison to the options available to them now.
Today, I wore black because I have friends and family who are veterans. I wore black because our president elect has spoken so freely about veteran’s benefits, calling them “entitlements”. They are entitled, for putting their lives on the line, for injuries and the mental ripple effect caused by wars that other men started, but never had to come face to face with like our soldiers.
Today, I wore black because I have friends and family who are Hispanic, as well as of African American descent. I wore black because those people are lumped into exclusive groups of “all”. “All” African Americans were lumped into “the blacks” by our president elect and despite the fact that he will be taking the seat that has been filled by someone of African American descent, spoke through out his campaign about how “all the blacks” have poor education, live in deplorable conditions and poverty.
I wore black because children I know, though they were born in the United States and legal citizens, have last names that reflect their Hispanic heritage and more so, are proud of it. They are and should be proud that they know their Mexican heritage, but our president elect has even made being born from Mexican descent (in general) a “bad thing”. He wants to build a wall to keep illegal immigrants out. Historically speaking, walls have only been built to be torn down (if you think I’m incorrect, please by all means look up Berlin Wall). There are laws in place for legal immigration, but to build a wall and to so brutally verbally condemn an entire group of ethnicities would seem to go against all that our nation was built on.
Today, I wore black because I have watched my friends and family in the LGBT community struggle, not only with being honest with themselves, but with the world. I have watched and supported the struggles to legalize marriage in order to ensure that they are given the same basic legal rights when they file taxes, apply for insurance or in the eventuality that death should occur. Simple rights, that people all too often take for granted, that they were denied for decades simply because of what happens in their bedrooms. I have heard the anti-LGBT propaganda being spewed by the vice president elect, seeking to undo all of the progress we have made to provide some of the most basic of human rights to this community.
Today, I wore black because the last time a man came into power and sought to segregate and mark an entire people based on their religion (as well as race and sexual orientation), he committed mass genocide. He sentenced those people to horrific deaths. If we refuse refugees based on their religion, deport legal citizens, based on their religion that have come from war torn and often impoverished areas, how will it be different? Marking them only makes them targets for racial profiling, for people who are intolerant and xenophobic.
Today, I wore black because I have disabled friends and family and find it despicable and deplorable that anyone would mock someone with a disability. Some of these friends and family were born this way, some it happened with age, others because of environmental factors or car accidents. Any type of disability is out of a person’s control, it is who they are and to mock anyone for it shows a disgusting flaw in character.
Today, I wore black to mourn for all that we, as a nation stand to lose with this president elect in office. I wore black because we, as a nation have come so far to overcome ideals that oppressed so many people for so long to have any of that taken away. I wore black for fear of the protesting that will be ahead, for the inevitable riots that have followed protests recently.
Today, I wore black because of all of the hatred that I have seen over the past several months revolving around this presidential election and because most of it came from the very man that is now, our president elect.
rantings of a wild woman 