No, Joe. I don’t Want to Unite With the Right

Along with millions of other minority classes hanging off the end of their sword 4 years later, I have no interest in making friends.

During his victory speech, President Elect Joe Biden asked the deeply divided American Public to “Give each other a chance.” For many of us, that’s not just a steep request… it is an insult to our dignity.

While the concept of unity in a post Trump era sounds poetic on paper, the chasm created by his base in one too wide to bridge easily. Minorities, especially Muslims that they have demonized, LGBTQ people they have threatened and persecuted, women they have endangered, Mexicans they called rapists, black people who were used as pawns to stoke fear and incite radical acts of violent racism for four years have no obligation to extend an olive branch to our proud attackers that have responded to Trump’s frequent, relentless dog whistles and required us to invest valuable time and energy fending them off with a stick.

Trump’s Presidency did not create the dark underbelly of bigotry in our society, but unveiled them. He invited them out into the open, from beneath the hood and preyed upon their deeply seated prejudices against us by giving them permission to launch merciless, hate fueled campaigns whereupon they laid a target firmly on our backs.