For most of us, this was a sobering morning to wake up to. Everything you thought you knew to be true is up for question and the United States elected Donald Trump to be their new president.
But, and trust me on this; the fact that you are so upset is proof that actually, we’re going to be OK. We just need a little help from you.
What this year has proven is that, despite all the people on your Twitter timeline who care about standing up for the little guy and who don’t give a monkey’s what colour, race or religion someone is as long as they’re not a total knob, there’s just as many people out there who think the opposite.
To these people, words from the English language have taken on different meanings. ‘Immigration’ means ‘threat to our way of life’, ‘refugee’ means ‘terrorist’, ‘Person Of Colour’ means ‘someone I should be afraid of’ and yes, whilst that’s an unbelievably frustrating set of beliefs for someone to hold, getting angry at them isn’t going to help.
Many people in this country and the United States (and yes, they’re mainly poor and white) feel, rightly or wrongly, disenfranchised. Why else would they vote for something as extreme as Donald Trump or Brexit? Their fear has turned into hate and, so-called ‘leaders’ who help fuel that hate for their own ends (Trump, Farage, Johnson) have been exploiting them.
But to hate these people, to call them bigots and racists, to tell them they’re idiots and that they shouldn’t be allowed to vote, doesn't help. If someone you perceived (again, rightly or wrongly) to be more privileged than you came up to you and told you that your fundamental belief system was a pile of rubbish, your heckles would probably be raised too. In fact, you’d probably feel more inclined to fight for that belief system with a even more fervour.
And that’s what’s happened here.
So, what can we do now? We try to make peace. Instead of attacking the people that voted for Brexit and Donald Trump, we work to understand them. If you feel comfortable enough, you engage them in conversations where we try to understand WHY, rather than conversations where we lash out in anger.
Obviously for some people, engaging isn’t always an option. To the Muslim Americans who now fear an almost certain rise in hate crimes, to the Latinx men and women now surely due to be the subject of xenophobic abuse, to the People Of Colour who have lost hope for the future… if you yourself don’t fall under any of these categories, it’s all the more important that we do this for them.
There is so much hate in the world right now and 2016 has proved that actually, hating does very little good. Let’s turn that around. Start small today – nothing is too small or insignificant. Ask your co-worker about that picture of her kids on her desk, buy a homeless person a sandwich, say thank you to your bus driver, remember that that person who pushed past you on the train might have had a worse morning than you, give a fiver to charity, buy a Big Issue, give your nan a call, make up with an ex-friend, pay for the person’s coffee behind you at Starbucks, leave a bigger tip for the waitress, compliment someone’s outfit, give up your seat…
Just do something nice.
Go forth, and show some love. Show Donald Trump that, actually, LOVE TRUMPS HATE.
And don't forget to share your own #lovetrumpshate deeds with us today on Twitter @TheDebrief...
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.