THIS IS NOT NORMAL
**300+ hate crimes in the week since the Election**
“Post-election spate of hate crimes worse than post-9/11, experts say” http://www.usatoday.com/…/post-election-spate…/93681294/
**President-elect Trump appointing a white nationalist (Steve Bannon) as his Chief Political Strategist, co-equal to his Chief of Staff.**
This is not normal. This is not even close to normal.
For my at-risk friends (friends of color, gay friends, female friends, muslim and jewish friends), a world where hate crimes surge across the country is just the beginning. A white nationalist will soon be the Oval Office, sitting at the president-elect’s side, advising him on “strategies” for four years. Nothing good is coming from that.
If you’re not directly targeted by the hate (or even if you are), one of the hardest parts of this going forward will be to resist the “normalization” of it. As if the things Trump has said and promised to do to our fellow Americans isn’t an outrage. As if having a white nationalist whispering in his ear isn’t an unprecedented elevation of the power of hate.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
**Support organizations like the ACLU and the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) who will have their hands full fighting the infringement of rights of our citizens going forward. https://www.splcenter.org/
**Educate yourself about the alt-Right, the new white nationalist movement that’s rebranded hate into a more “mainstream” name – your new Chief Political Strategist, Steve Bannon, is their hero.
https://www.splcenter.org/…/ideology/alternative-right
**Sign a petition telling Trump that a person like Bannon does not belong in the White House. No matter who you voted for, you can take a stand against this:
https://www.splcenter.org/stephen-bannon-has-no-business…
**STAY VIGILANT
“The racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America.” – John Weaver, GOP strategist for John Kaisch
https://twitter.com/JWGOP/status/797918770136117248…
When a GOP strategist warns you to stay vigilant because the new political strategist in the Oval Office is too extreme… that is NOT NORMAL politics.
**Be Strong – Support your at-risk friends. Take action. Donate. Fight this, but if you need a break from the unrelenting awful, do that. Only by putting on your oxygen mask first will you be able to stand up to this. And to resist the creeping insistence that all of this is somehow “normal” for America. It’s not. We’re better than this.