I have shed more than a gallon of tears since November 9, 2016. Most of those tears were a manifestation of grief with a solid dose of fury. These last few days also found me in tears as I struggled with impending election results. I took a long walk the day after the election and shed tears from behind my sunglasses as I listened to ABBA in a futile attempt to lift my spirits. Even Dancing Queen didn’t cut it. I mean, half of voters in an almost record turnout year still wanted to see T.Rump in office, even after he showed us his true color. White.
How can one move on from this? How are we to carry on knowing that people sitting squarely across from us in meetings and job interviews might have voted to perpetuate bigotry in America? We cannot succumb to treacly calls for kindness in this this case because it’s not a civil political disagreement. This is about fundamental disagreements in honoring people and valuing their humanity. Pandora’s Box was opened four years ago, and there’s no shutting it now. We are at the edge of a reckoning, America, and the mirror is held right up to our nose to see ourselves as who we are, who we have been. If we take a turn, we can see ourselves for whom we want to be. Yesterday gave us a glimpse of just that. History was made. America exhaled. We gleefully joined together in a collective smile. It’s a new day.
Representation matters.
Friends are showering me with thoughtful, emotional messages, echoing my years-long battle cry, “Representation Matters.” Just yesterday, I met so many young Indian women who told me how happy they were to talk with me, a progressive Indian woman, because they have few role models in this space. Truth is, we have few role models in any spaces. I hope the tide turns at warp speed.
White men have been at the helm of power for centuries. I think it’s safe to say that they have not delivered. If they had, would we be where we are today? I continue to have age old discussions about childcare, maternal health, equal pay, equality, justice, racial equity. White men in power have not made significant strides in these areas and they are not leveraging their own power to make room for others. Men in seats of power hold on to the systems that put them there, white supremacy and the patriarchy.
Do you wonder why so many of our legislators and leaders all look alike? They have a pipeline of people they groom to fill the seats. I know women around the country who have literally been told to take a seat because there are men ahead of them in line to run for office and women should not obstruct them because they paid their dues. It’s astonishing, really. These are men hand selected by those in power who wish to perpetuate their own views and support their power structure, so guess what, they all look the same. They often share the same pedigree, seemingly indistinguishable if you lined up their LinkedIn profiles. I myself attended candidate training not long ago and was told to wait my turn by male political consultants. I know other women who were told exact same thing. Added to the “speak to the hand” mix of rhetoric directed to women of color were the words, “North Carolina’s not ready for you.”
We have to break these cycles in order to get actual representation. We will not have BIPOC and women in seats of power in our local, state, and national governments until we shift the lens we use to identify candidates and leaders. These systems must change. The decision makers must change. It’s not about making room at the table, we need to build our own damn table. Sure, there are individuals in office who support all the issues I’m talking about here, but institutionally, there hasn’t been enough change.
But I am hopeful.
It’s 2020, and we have the first woman poised to be our vice president. The fact that she’s a woman of color gives me immeasurable pride.
Alas, I have a dancing queen inspiration now.
Kamala Harris is dancing in the Florida rain. pic.twitter.com/z2lxKMJ89e
— The Recount (@therecount) October 19, 2020