Racists come in many flavors in Trump’s America (Source: https://goo.gl/edc9NN)

To Those Who Chose To Make My Family Afraid

and The Voters That Aided and Supported Them

I’m a white man. My family is biracial. This is something that bigots have decided is a problem, and that is where my issues with Trump and his supporters arise.

Since the election I have heard from those who voted for Trump, many of them are my family and close friends. I have heard from the left and the right how I should listen and try to learn from them, to make things better for all Americans. How I should move on and get over it. However, it is a position I cannot embrace. In the days leading up to and following the election, racial attacks and intimidation have occurred against my immediate and extended family. They are hardly the only ones, as attacks and harassment against ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities have increased across the country.

When these attacks started I was afraid because I know racism, I grew up thinking it was normal. I’ve seen the way it flows through groups until it explodes on its target. I know that these incidents would not have happened if people did not feel that they had the support of their community. That has turned my fear into the anger, the kind that is only felt when a person knows that a loved one has been threatened.

I know that bigotry hides in the shadows until it has a large enough base of support to start rearing its ugly head. I also know that I have met the people targeting my family, and those that give them support. They have looked me in the eye and smiled while I’m out with my kids, or had a drink beside me at the bar. We’ve doubtlessly attended festivals alongside each other in our small town.

This election, my people had the choice to help my family feel safe in public. A large portion of them instead chose to cast a vote for a candidate backed by white nationalists, white supremacists and other hate groups. That has allowed cowards to come out of the shadows, and target marginalized groups, including my family the with public threats and violence. The safety of my family is paramount to me, and my fellow Americans chose to violate that. Whether because of bigotry directly, or because they believed that the safety of their fellow Americans is not their concern because they look or behave differently.

This type of people are now threatening my loved ones

Realize that this is not about playing politics, this is not about whether one candidate was better or worse then the other, this is not about what may or may not have happened leading up to the election. This is about the safety of marginalized people, including my family, who no longer feel safe in their homes and communities.