Donald J. Trump was elected for a second time in a U.S. Presidential election on November, 6, 2024. This is a concern for those living in the United States, as well as nations impacted by our politics. The Heritage Foundation’s proposed Project 2025 is making international headlines, as the U.S. joins it’s world voice with the likes of the Taliban and Vladimir Putin. For those of us with female reproductive organs, who are LGBTQ, and who aren’t white, naturalized citizens, or other demographics, it can feel like the end of the world itself. White supremacy is facilitating fascism at dizzying speed in this country.
So. What do I do, now?
Mourn.
Have you ever been divorced, lost someone you love, or had your heart broken? Have you ever had to see someone you love suddenly…not be there, anymore? Then you are familiar with the grieving and mourning process.
Oxford languages on Google defines “mourn” as a verb. It is, to “feel or show deep sorrow or regret for (someone or their death), typically by following conventions such as the wearing of black clothes. ‘Isabel mourned her husband.'”
Merriam-Webster notes that “grief” and the act of grieving, can include suffering, annoyance, and bereavement.
I mourn most things with the right playlist. Use the previous link to join me in a musical-historical-American-funeral.
Ritual, word, music, movement, scents, smoke, flowers, and specific people may be important to some. Like a religious practice, ritual can help all humans self-sooth in times of emotional and daily stressors.
Without allowing oneself the privileges of grieving, and accepting this human experience, it can keep us locked in patterns of behavior that perpetuate fascism. And you don’t want that for me, and I don’t want that for you.
Feel.
RuPaul, stewardesses, and most American therapists have one thing in common: they will all tell you to put yourself first in a crisis. This is especially helpful if not counterintuitive advice, right now.
Whatever one is feeling about their own experience in the United States, about white supremacy(ists), and fascism, now is the time to feel.
White supremacy, as a pair of words in the English language, cause a lot of emotions for people. That’s a difficult fact some of us white people are choosing to face.
We aren’t going to stop fascists in this country by ignoring racism. Feel it, and get on board with smashing white supremacy as a social norm rewarding the wrong people. It’s time to mourn the loss of a feeling of security many generations never knew.
The most well-known model on grief highlights main experiences common for those grieving: denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and acceptance. Elisabeth Kübler–Ross, the Swiss-American psychiatrist who popularized talking about grief in 1969, has some merit today.
Emotions can be tricky at the best of times, and sudden loss of hope is worthy of grieving any living person or former relationship. It’s not easy, but when my kids were in school this week after election day, I spent my time listening to old sermons by Martin Luther King, Jr. and finding solace. I listened to speeches by Mr. Malcolm X, John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Sr., and added those to my playlist. It became a valid, tangible, thing I can revisit whenever I want to feel.
It helped me have space mentally to be present and enjoy my time with my children. And that’s the most punk-rock shit there is. Living and enjoying my life, my spouse, my children, even though I’m grieving. Your mileage may vary.
Learn.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has an informative briefer on Nazi symbols still used today.
Know what hate looks like, and where it comes from. Donald Trump was born June 14, 1946. Yet here we are, in 2024, talking about Nazis and fascism associated with him. How did we get here? White supremacy, the belief of an advanced “race” of people who lack melanin and who worship a Protestant god are the traditional ways of defining white supremacy. In no period of history do we in the U.S. point to more than Nazi Germany to illustrate how bad fascism and white supremacy get when they get together.
This past summer, the UK had a right-wing racist incite racist riots against immigrants. Right-wing publications like the Nation in the United States decided to make this about us, and use it against Kamala Harris. Enhancing the false narrative that democrats are communist scumbags who want open borders, Republican scumbags decided to make the UK’s racism somehow more racist and egotistical by tacking on their own “and what about us” notes nobody asked for.
Anti-racists across the United Kingdom took care of their own, meanwhile. Despite the continued bloodshed and fire-starting popular in medieval times, some folks who are present in the 21st century took time to make it important to state that there is no hate welcome there.
So, how did America get so great again, again? What do you need to learn to fill those gaps, do you think?
Unlearn.
I’m a very ignorant person. Despite my bachelors and masters degrees (a Master’s in Education, no less!) I was totally ignorant of my own origins until the last couple years. With that, I was ignorant not just of the role of my own family in major historical moments, but of the historical facts behind why I’m here in the first place. I have been, am, and will be, unlearning the rest of my life. And grieving, the loss of the fairy tales which I thought were fact. And the loss of the humanity of the people around me, who had none but that which I could project on them for my own survival.
Your processes and mine are going to be different, but I’ve had to face my own biases from my original teachers to accept facts before me. That’s like big time existential crisis territory, but there’s no time like the present to make changes internally for the good of those outside myself–and maybe benefit along the way, too.
What about you, anyway? Do you know where you come from? Who? How has racism, nationalism, and hate touched your life? How about religious trauma? Racism? Your ancestor’s lives?
Have you ever stopped to consider how normalized white supremacy has been, up till Donald Trump first secured the Republican nomination for President in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2016? Where have your own ancestors been in the generations before that? And what makes that important?
If you need something to do, just hang out if you have the time, alone, and chill with these questions. And the memories of what the answers were you thought you knew.
Rage.
Anger is a human emotion, as useful as any other. So long as one isn’t harming anyone else, including themselves, rage can produce immense progress and creative resistance.
There’s nothing wrong with being angry. It’s what you do with that, that makes all the difference. Fascism doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It has helpers. It takes silence and a desire to, “get by,” and make the daily grind work that kills off creativity, and the rage necessary, sometimes, to create change. White supremacy in the U.S. facilitates fascism because our social norms center a white comfort not afforded any other group. This false sense of security is facilitated by a populous who has to just, “get by” and work without doing a lot of introspection.
In the United States, there has already been acceptable baselines based on race, class, gender, sex, and citizenship status which has normalized this acceptance of dead and disappeared peoples. It won’t take much to add white trans people and those of other races into the heap. In retrospect, it’s a huge mistake for any polite society to allow anyone of any category, to suffer and disappear in these ways.
What happens when I find my rage? Eventually, I find enough words to string together a blog post.
Unplug.
Consider curating your media streams. Don’t tune out everything: find the best sources.
Consider checking out Mona Elthaway for worldwide, feminist, news of importance to all.
Get news that isn’t American. The only social media I use now is Reddit, and I’ve decided to creep amongst various news sites worldwide. Reading comments helps me understand the social context of international issues, and that in turn helps me see global trends, and that helps me plan to keep me as healthy as possible. In short, I can control it. Every little bit I can control right now is alright with me.
Live.
I have no faith in political leaders, or the nation I live in, or even the career I left. Nobody owes me anything, and nobody is coming to save me but me. I show up, every single time.
Your mileage may vary, of course. I find that the loneliness is the hardest part. I’ve found that since coming out as non-binary or trans (legally speaking), and antiracist, my social circle becomes smaller. More hostile. Overtly and directly, across professional, personal, and familial settings. I find that interesting, and keep on living, anyway!
I have set myself full steam ahead to end white supremacy. If you’d like to join me, come by and visit anytime, check out resources, and share your own. One thing about Western Nations: white supremacy is needed for fascism to flourish. And I really can’t be seen doing that.
Get out the urge to be gay and do crime by using these free anti-fascist, anti–Nazi, pro abortion images I made. Share them with all your friends and comrades! Make them into something cooler, still!
Got extra cash? Shirts Against Supremacists is a site I recently found on Reddit. Merch is pro-trans and anti-racist.
Anywhere can be a protest, if you make it fashion. And remember:
