BY ISOKE SAMUEL '18

For my dear friend Elaine Reed who died on Nov. 9, 2016 at 10:30 a.m. upon hearing the results of the election; thank you for opening our minds and our hearts and reminding us to live. 

Last night, over 4,000 miles away from Mount Holyoke College in a small Italian city, I crowded around a tiny computer screen with three Greeks and four Americans to watch CNN report the results of the 45th presidential election. With every state that turned red, the same people who hated the color of my skin since the day that I was born labeled all of the other portions of who I am as invalid and unimportant.