Apartheid

I've been chewing over a conversation I had with my Dad the day after the election.  

My parents fled Apartheid-era South Africa. They moved here in the late 70's, just in time for me to be born. They brought their two kids away, to find a better life that wasn't living in a terrifying, backwards police state. They came to America for opportunities for their children. For opportunities for themselves. And, in some part, to rid themselves of the disgusting culture of Apartheid. 

So, when I talked to my dad about the implications of the election, that the racist and xenophobic rhetoric was just that, rhetoric. That only a small part of the population believed those disgusting lies, and the rest are just going along. That human beings inherently know right from wrong.

And my father, a Forensic Psychiatrist with more time spent with the inner working of human beings minds than almost any living person on earth said the most haunting words I've ever heard.

"No. They don't." He went on to talk about South Africa and how the vast majority of the population didn't just let what was happening go, they actively encouraged it. They believed that the Africans were subhumans and that if they weren't controlled rigidly, they'd bring absolute chaos. 

It wasn't just a small pocket. It was what was taught in schools. It was what was considered the 'average' opinion. 

And now, with a white supremacist and his cronies in the White House, the news media saying, "Everything is fine," and life forcefully beginning again from this wreckage, I just ask you to consider is that the world you want to live in? A world where Muslims, Latinos, African-Americans, LGBTQ, Jews, women, and any people other than white, male Christians are less than. Deserving of punishment, ridicule, and, eventually, annihilation.

That's the President we've elected. This is the world we live in. 

It's up to us to change it.