The people I know that voted for Trump are good people that were not in support of many of his views and comments. They were like a lot of voters. They weighed out their options and voted for who they thought was the least negative candidate in their estimation. That is a sad commentary on both candidates we had to choose from. But the prevailing attitude that people that voted for Trump are by a large majority racists and bigots is wrong. Just like the assumption that most Clinton supporters are abortion lovin' uneducated welfare mamas looking for handouts. Like someone else pointed out earlier on this thread, I also saw the picture posted of the big gorilla that was comparing it with the current first lady. Its less than subtle racial inference was not lost on me or I suspect on many others. I was offended and maybe I should have posted that but I guess I've adopted an attitude "why bother" since those kinds of memes and pictures have become so common since the past administration. But to deny there has been a racial overtone in much of the social media discussions regarding our president and his family would be sticking our head in the sand. That has crossed over to other parts of society from all sides. I will admit that I am personally sensitive to those kind of posts. I have two lovely immigrant daughter-in-laws who I love as if I gave birth to them, lol. Both are US citizens with advanced college degrees. One is Latino and one is Caribbean. Both are beautiful, gracious, and intelligent. My own lovely mother was a European immigrant. So, right or wrong, it is personal to me. I have seen first hand the face of bigotry when out with my son and his mocha skinned wife. But it is rare. We live in a diverse urban area where people have been exposed to same sex couples, different races, many faiths and cultures. The sight of a same gender couple or mixed couple barely raises an eyebrow. Admittedly our beautiful grandbaby gets many looks when his grandfather and I take him out, which is often. Maybe some people are just being patronizing when they go out of their way to tell us how adorable he is. But I don't think so.
My son was devastated at the outcome of the election. He has great fears for his son growing up in a world where he will have to overcome preconceived assumptions and attitudes based on his heritage and skin tone. But to my pride, his way of dealing with it is to become more involved and productive in his community instead of being bitter. The day after the election he signed up to deliver food to the elderly. He and his wife then became involved in a project to deliver books to inner city children. They are signing us all up to be part of a layette program for new mothers in LBJ hospital to give a positive start to new mothers, many who are young first time moms who have been abandoned by the baby's father and their own families.I apologize for the length of this post. I would like us to challenge each other to find productive ways to channel our frustrations with the wrongs in our country and to seek the power in our own individual spirits that are not defined by who holds office or what party we may or may not affiliate with. While I am not a confrontational person by nature, I am realizing that by saying nothing I am giving stereotypes and division a pass, if not an endorsement. Like a lot of families, we have many different political opinions and support different candidates in ours. But we are more alike than we are different. I believe that is true of most of us. We want the same things in life and those things are pretty basic. I think we are at a time when we need to speak out when we see something that hurts, that alienates, that divides and stereotypes us. I don't want to be represented by the lowest denominator of my affiliations and I doubt anyone else does either. 4951