Waking Up in Donald Trump's America
/Anxiety about the Future of Education and Social Discourse
Source: Slate.com
It is under unfortunate circumstances that I break my long radio silence, but writing is an invaluable tool for making sense of trying times.
While we, as educators, have an obligation to not be partisan in our classrooms, it is no secret that, as a private citizen, I have a strong dislike for – even fear of – Donald Trump. My wife is a woman of color. My mother-in-law is a Mexican immigrant and a legal resident, but not a citizen. I have friends and students who are members of the LGBTQ community. I know people whose lives have been significantly improved by having access to abortion services. It’s hard for me to not feel that all of those things are in danger now. Additionally, our social discourse will almost certainly be reshaped during Trump’s presidential term. The die is cast; there’s no going back now. So the question is: how do we move forward from here?
Before I move on, I need to own my privilege. I am a cisgendered, heterosexual, able-bodied, middle-class, white male. I fall into a group that is among those who have the least to fear from Trump. While I feel it is important to acknowledge that my rights are less endangered than the rights of many other people, thinking that that means I don’t have any “skin in the game” is precisely the sort of thinking that has led us to a Donald Trump presidency. Moreover, as someone who is effectively an employee of the federal government, my professional identity cannot be separated from the results of this election. Far, far up the chain of command, Donald Trump will be my boss.
This is a very serious topic, and we are on the brink of very serious consequences, but I hope I can be forgiven for turning to Star Trek in this time of need. In the past, I have said (only half-joking) that when I was growing up, I learned morality by watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. In one episodes, “The Drumhead,” Captain Jean-Luc Picard is among those put on trial during a witch hunt. While he is on the stand, he quotes a fictional judge who said:
“‘With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.’ Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie, as wisdom and warning. The first time any man’s freedom is trodden on, we’re all damaged.”
I feel there is good reason to be apprehensive, or even afraid, as we look at the years to come. With Trump’s party controlling both chambers of Congress, and with his opportunity to nominate at least one Supreme Court Justice, it would be naïve to think progressive causes won’t be undermined. However, we cannot let this blind us to the need for empathy or trap us in apathy and despair. And I do not mean only empathy for those who may become even more disenfranchised and oppressed. We also have an obligation to be empathetic to those who brought Trump into power. When Trump’s election is being called the “biggest upset in American history,” there is clearly something about the people in this country that we did not understand, or at least underestimated. We do not have the luxury of ignoring them now.
The election results revealed a stark divide between rural and urban voters, not to mention a stark divide in gender and race. It is easy to feel resentment after these results, and to react with hostility or smugness towards Trump’s wave of rural, white men who don’t hold a college degree. But that is not the way forward. In fact, that approach likely has something to do with how we got here. Having empathy towards people with which we profoundly disagree, and towards people who threaten our liberties, is hard, but it is also necessary. We cannot dismiss their grievances, and we cannot deny their political power.
The need for empathy is particularly important for educators, and we are also uniquely positioned to promote social change. I teach in a state that has such an extreme rural/urban divide that eleven of our counties even put forward a ballot initiative to break away from Colorado and become the 51st state. That ostensibly serious effort was motivated specifically by feeling that rural counties were neglected by a state that gave disproportionate attention to our more urban counties. Hillary Clinton ultimately won Colorado, but Trump overwhelmingly won in our rural counties. Many of my students come from families that likely feel they have been left behind in the changing landscape of American and ignored in narratives and economics that privilege cities over towns. I don’t get to pick and choose which students I care about or support. I have an obligation to all of them.
Yet, Trump’s rhetoric and behavior have been validated, and that will surely have a ripple effects. We are likely to see his actions and words replicated (in one way or another) in our classrooms. Virtually every minority group has reason to feel threatened, regardless of what the reality turns out to be. There is a very realistic possibility people of color, women, and members of the LGBTQ community will see their rights curtained. That means we have a heightened obligation to set and hold firm to standards of what is acceptable classroom behavior. The already tenuous and inconsistent nature of classrooms as “safe spaces” will be challenged. At this time, I am troubled by a quote my grad advisor shared from one of her past colleagues: “Is it my job to change the world or just make them more articulate bigots?” It is hard for me to not feel that bigotry has just won.
We can’t let ourselves fall into the trap of apathy or resentment. If I may trot out a clichéd quote from Gandhi, we must instead “be the change [we] wish to see in the world.” As our national social discourse becomes less civil, we must fight to maintain civility in our classrooms. As the notion that we don’t need to respect the needs of others grows, we must build a classroom culture defined by respect. Through careful and challenging work, we can strive to let a these standards spread outwards from our classrooms: into our communities, and beyond, even if our schools become strapped for resources. Perhaps that is overly idealistic, but in difficult times, I will gladly take idealism over fear.
Trump’s election shifts more responsibility onto each of us to build the sort of social discourse that will likely be challenged in the years to come. No blog post of mine would be complete without a Carl Sagan quote, so while Sagan was talking about the fragile nature of the Earth, I believe Trump’s election “underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another.” We must hold ourselves and others to a higher standard in our social discourse. We must strive to have even greater empathy, including for those we resent. We have a more exigent obligation to promote and enact social justice.
However, we must find a way to do so without being smug and without shaming others. We must find a way to pursue these goals that does not alienate the people who have empowered this demagogue. Trump is anything but a unifier, so the onus falls to us to find means of unifying our bruised and fractured society. That goal begins in both our homes and our schools. Our future as a sane and functional society may well depend on our ability to enact decency in the face of dissolution.
For each day I wake up in Trump's America, I will try to remember the words of comedian Justin McElroy from last night:
I'm gonna wake up and keep trying to do good and so are you and nobody gets to vote on that.
— Justin McElroy (@JustinMcElroy) November 9, 2016
Let's keep trying.
Works Consulted
Associated Press. “Gender Gap Proves Crucial: Working-class Men Strengthen Trump’s Bid.” Times Union, 9 Nov. 2016. http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Gender-gap-proves-crucial-10603292.php Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.
Bouie, Jamelle. “How Trump Happened: It’s Not Just Anger Over Jobs and Immigration. White Voters Hope Trump Will Restore the Racial Hierarchy Upended by Barack Obama.” Slate.com, 13 March 2016. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/03/how_donald_trump_happened_racism_against_barack_obama.html Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.
"The Drumhead." Star Trek: The Next Generation, written by Jeri Taylor, directed by Jonathan Frakes, CBS, 1991.
Goldberg, Michael. “Discourse.” Washington.edu. https://faculty.washington.edu/mlg/courses/definitions/discourse.html Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.
Goldmacher, Shane and Ben Schreckinger. “Trump Pulls Off Biggest Upset in U.S. History: Markets are Already Reeling After the Billionaire Scores Stunning Win Over Clinton.” Politico.com, 9 Nov. 2016. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/election-results-2016-clinton-trump-231070 Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.
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Pickett, RaeAnn. “Trigger Warnings and Safe Spaces Are Necessary.” Time.com, 31 August 2016. http://time.com/4471806/trigger-warnings-safe-spaces/ Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.
Rensin, Emmett. “The Smug Style in American Liberalism.” Vox.com, 21 April 2016. http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberalism Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.
Sagan, Carl. The Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. New York: Random House, 1994.
Whaley, Monte. “51st State Question Answered ‘No’ in 6 of 11 Counties Contemplating Secession.” The Denver Post, 5 Nov. 2015. http://www.denverpost.com/2013/11/05/51st-state-question-answered-no-in-6-of-11-counties-contemplating-secession/ Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.
Wong, David. “How Half of America Lost its F**king Mind.” Cracked.com, 12 Oct. 2016. http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about/ Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.
Zitner, Aaron and Paul Overberg. “Rural Vote Fuels Trump; Clinton Loses Urban Grip: Division Persists in the Electorate that Have Been in Place for Years.” The Wall Street Journal, 9 Nov. 2016. http://www.wsj.com/articles/rural-vote-helps-donald-trump-as-hillary-clinton-holds-cities-1478664251 Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.
