The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Linda Nelson is an independent writer, director and consultant who is currently the Economic & Community Development director for the Town of Stonington.
As a queer woman since the age of 14 in 1975, I am no stranger to feeling in the minority. Still, the days after Election Day are a good reminder to everyone that this is not a good feeling — and therefore one no one should experience.
I am jumpy. It’s not grief I feel post-election as much as dread: the feeling you have in waking from sleep that something bad has happened and your life is forever changed.
I went through years of physical harassment and discrimination in my youth for being a queer woman, and have been grateful for the progress we’ve made to reduce, if not eliminate, these experiences as I’ve aged.
But I vividly remember this feeling — that uneasy, insecure sense one has when one is forced to recognize their minority status. It is a feeling, and oppression, our citizens of color as well as women and queer people have always had and continue to confront. The privileges of my education and skin color have granted me a bit of a pass for the past couple of decades, one for which I am grateful.
None of us should feel threatened by being a minority voice or body in any room or in the world — including those who, as pundits are saying, “took back” the country with this month’s presidential election.
In many ways, it is a “taking back:” a grab for power made ugly by language and actions of some people whom our culture has made to feel insecure — predominantly white men but others who hope to rise to the top, too. The white European culture on which this continent was colonized as a nation is based in hierarchy, material wealth, and yes, violent extremism. In this way, this election is a “going back” to the rot at the root for which we as a nation, unlike Germany or South Africa, has never gone through truth and reconciliation.
No one should be made to feel less than others, or threatened for who they are by the power of a majority. That’s not the point of truth and reconciliation or of governance in general. It’s not about blame. It’s about developing mutual, shared understandings that take us forward together.
We don’t need power over each other for everyone to have enough if some don’t grab more than their share. But changing this deep, deep cultural bedrock, one based on the structural accrual of wealth and power at the expense of others, is proving to be a lengthier evolution than some of us would like.
Because these accruals are seductive. We all buy into them. We participate.
Perhaps the most tragic result of our growing cultural divide is that many now think of education as a form of elitism rather than as the great social equalizer it was intended to be. We have created this problem by allowing higher education to become financially out of reach for too many. We’ve helped to create a resented elite by not fighting hard enough to ensure everyone has what they need to participate and to succeed.
Only 37.7 percent of U.S. citizens have a four-year college education. Yet in 2022, the median earnings for young Americans with a bachelor’s degree were a shocking 59 percent higher than those with a high school diploma, and college degrees have essentially been a de facto requirement for those holding public office and making the policies that impact us all.
So I’ve been part of a different minority all along: the one holding power.
We need to listen to the majority who voted to return Donald Trump to office, and seriously consider their reasons without dismissing anyone.
We can do better.
As Kamala Harris said so beautifully in her concession speech at Howard University: The fight for equity and justice for all continues. It’s never been a short fight. It’s easy to be exhausted by chaos and fear and to deny our own accountability. We need to re-think, re-create, re-gather for the long haul. We all have responsibility, we all have a part to play, now and every day.