Ever since Donald Trump became President-Elect, social media has been in a frenzy, especially if those people who are posting had been ardent Hillary Clinton supporters. Reading some of the commentaries that certain folks wrote, one would think Trump’s election was the repeal of the 13th Amendment re-establishing slavery and involuntary servitude.
Immediately after the announcement was made that Trump was winning more states, and thus Electoral College votes, many has-been and wannabe political pundits began spewing their diatribes. From thoughts of how to make the Electoral College vote for Hillary instead (and who knows what will happen on Dec. 19 when the electors meets to cast their votes?) to blaming Trump for everything that happens, the vitriol that was being displayed was probably akin to what some people felt when Barack Obama was first elected president. The amazing thing is that the same people who posted the “respect the office” when Obama won all of a sudden didn’t feel that those words applied because of their dislike for the outcome of this current election.
I know that many will respond that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. But I give kudos to the framers of the Constitution who gave voters in lesser populated states as much of a say as to who becomes president as those who live in highly populated states. Yes, the framers’ decision to count the slaves in the South gave those Southern states more meat in the game so that the more populated North wouldn’t dominate the elections the same way that states like New York and California with high populations aren’t allowed to dominate elections now.
While the bitterness over the outcome of the election is slowly starting to dissipate, I am not seeing many who are planning for what and how we will make a Trump Administration work for black people. Rev. Al Sharpton and his National Action Network is planning a “We Shall Not Be Moved March and Rally” on Saturday, Jan. 14 in Washington, DC. As Obama will still be president and Trump doesn’t get inaugurated until the 20th of the month, it is unclear if the march is in keeping with celebrating the Dr. King holiday or what.
What I do know is that the recent announcement that the unemployment rate is alleged to be at 4.6% is a fallacy, especially when it comes to inner-city communities and black people. That number is akin to the kind of accounting that Hollywood made popular where a movie can earn millions at the box office while on paper it is a complete loss. If there is one thing I want and will work for now, it’s to reverse the trend of unemployment in the black neighborhoods. The ongoing surge of violence is testament to the criminal mindset of a certain segment of the black community that chooses illegal actions over legitimate ones and money is always at the root of it.
No one knows or can predict the future with 100 percent accuracy. But it doesn’t take a psychic to see and know that with each new presidential administration, we have the opportunity to define our future. The question is will we do it or spend the next 4-8 years lamenting? Or will we get off our butts and get out and go do?
We’ve been on a romanticized lull over the past eight years as we watched the first black president swagger his way through it. But his time is coming to an end and our reality is nowhere near the dream state we have been in.
