Hi! Hello! Me again.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read my last post. (And by read, I mean all the the way through and not just to the point where you got pissed and commented instead of reading the rest, and by reading, I mean attempted to comprehend the words I wrote instead of drawing your own conclusions from the title, thinking about how wrong I was, formulating your rebuttal before you finished. Like legit, hey, I will read this…then take some time to think about it…then respond. That is reading. It’s super fun, I love it.) I really appreciated all of the kind (and not so kind) messages.

To sum it up, I explained why people should stop telling me to get over it. It being, the idea that America values a man who believes you can get away with anything when you’re rich and famous, including sexually harass women, “grab them by the p*ssy, you can do anything,” wants to ban an entire religion from entering the United States, and has said “laziness is a quality in blacks.” There’s more, but you’ve heard it all. Or ignored it all. IN any case, whether or not The Donald actually believes the things he says, many of his supporters definitely do. And since the election, some have been acting out accordingly. And I provided some examples of these open display of hate. And the people of Facebook got a wee-bit upset that I did not pay equal attention to the horrible things people were doing to Trump supporters or mentioning the protests. And they were right, I did not. Should I have? Perhaps. It would have saved a lot of interesting back-and-forth commenting on the FB. (Pretty sure that’s my full time job now. No idea how I’ll get paid.)

But here is why I didn’t.

Hating someone solely because of the color of their skin, their religion, their disability, where they were born, their gender, or who they love is NOT the same thing as being real f*cking angry with people who hate people for the color of their skin, their religion, their disability, where they were born, their gender, or who they love.

Here is an example of American citizens who got very angry, to the point of violence. Angry that America supports a man endorsed by the KKK, angry about being repeatedly told they are less than white peeps, being told they do not belong here, to GO BACK TO AFRICA. And yes, angry with people who support a man who fueled the hate. Whether or not these things were directly said to them, that they were said at all to anyone, hurts.

People deal with their emotions, their pain in different ways. Some of us write poetry. Some of us channel our pain into music. Others paint beautiful pictures or escape into nature. I deal with emotions by writing. Some of us deal with pain by acting out in anger. And though it is wrong, though no good can come from hurting someone else because you are in pain, sometimes…it feels like the only release; all that pain comes out and you can breathe again. But see, then the cycle inevitably starts over, and you find yourself in this never-ending loop. If it’s a healthy loop, like writing, like music, like nature,  you’ll be okay. If it’s a violent loop, you might have a problem. No matter how much pain you are in, it’s never appropriate to take it out on someone else in the form of violence.

So yes, a Trump supporter was attacked. I am sure he is not the only one. And that is not cool. And I’ve seen the sign calling for Melania’s rape at a protest, which is totally disgusting and uncalled for, and extremely contradictory for someone specifically protesting Trump, so I’m struggling to find the point that sign is actually trying to make. It’s truly awful, no excuses.

And, yes this also happened. (But we should talk about how the article starts out with describing Portland, Oregon a city infested with radical leftists. Like these human beings are a disease, a nasty insect, something to get rid of? But wait, there’s more. I encourage you to read the whole thing. It’s a good one. So good, it might scare you.)

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. So, so many people are upset, are hurt, are trying to find their place in this America, one they thought they knew, and many areas disappointed, so, very, very angry that their country values someone who openly attacked immigrants, Black Lives Matters protesters, Muslims, and women, while tipping his hat to white nationalists. And when all that rage boils up and explodes, people can do some real stupid shit. No doubt. And yes. This IS unacceptable.

And it truly sucks. I can’t even imagine the pain someone must be feeling to act out like this, but it must be intense. Visceral.

But I did not include those references in my original post, entitled, “why you need to stop telling me to get over it.” Why? Mostly because they did not support my statement. And as a trained journalist, that kind of stuff is actually important to me. The videos where students chanted “build a wall” and “white power”, put signs up that said go back to Africa, whites only, f*ck all porch monkeys, separated sinks for colored people, where people sprayed swastikas over windows, called someone retarded for being deaf?  They supported my statement.

Because those acts did not stem from pain. Or anger. They stemmed from HATE. From pure hate. These people who committed these acts were not in pain. Or fear. They weren’t afraid of being ripped from their families, or told to go back to their countries (which for most of them, IS AMERICA). They weren’t called racial slurs (though I would be insulted if I were called a Trump supporter, so I will give you that one). No! They weren’t in pain at all. Quite the opposite, actually. They were celebrating! They were happy to openly display their feelings! Their feelings of hate.

Beating someone up because they hate you because of the color of your skin, your religion, your disability, where you were born, your gender, or who you love, causing destruction and protesting in the streets against hate is called: pure, unbridled rage. Hardcore Rage. ALL OF THE RAGE. Mixed with confusion. Because like…why?

Hating someone purely because of the color of their skin, their religion, their disability, where they were born, their gender, or who they love is what we call: Racism. Bigotry. Hateful and seriously just plain awful, you should be ashamed of yourself. Xenophobic. Mysogynist. Homophobic. 

 

Yes, BOTH are terrible (thooooooough, if I had to choose which was worse, I totally could. I could. I mean, I will. It’s hate. Hate is worse.). BOTH need to stop.

And to be fair, Donald Trump did look into the camera and tell everyone to “Stop it.” That oughta do it.

But please, do not compare these two very different things. Do not compare acts fueled by Hate to acts fueled by Anger and Injustice. Do not compare racism and intolerance to fighting against racism and intolerance.

That is why I did not include those clips of rage in my post. Hate and Rage are not the same.

And my post was about Hate.