Photo by Dana Pan ’20
Students gathered in solidarity outside Williston Miles-Smith Library after Donald Trump was announced as the 45th president-elect the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov. 9
BY EOIN BRADLEY '15
How do we reconcile this reality?
The past 24 hours have felt like a bad trip. I woke up utterly confused with the reality of this situation. Hour by hour I have tried to sober up. I am trying to process. I am trying to reconcile. The weekend approaching this election day felt like the calm before a storm no one was expecting. And now, from Nov. 9 onward, we process; we reconcile.
Seeing him stand on a podium in presidential fashion made me feel suddenly out of place. I couldn’t tell if I was in a bad dream, watching a movie or actually in reality. And as my white male coworkers cracked jokes about him being president, and white peers made plans to move overseas, I felt utterly alone in the face of something I couldn’t fathom. In the face of something inconceivable.
Fortunately, when I stumbled into a protest, I think I finally gained clarity. Hearing people chant “Not my president” and “Black Lives Matter” gave me a feeling of clarity and solidarity. Seeing so many people marching against him, gave me a sense of hope I didn’t know I could feel right now.
Although I still left the protest with a warped reality — walking down a vacant Boston street with the sounds of chanting, sirens, and helicopters in the distance — it made me feel like I knew where to start processing. I knew how to begin reconciling the reality of this election. Just because Trump won, doesn’t mean the world is moving backwards or even standing still. With our voices, and our fight, we can still keep moving forward. We still can have progress.