No matter what your politics are, there is no arguing with the fact that we are a deeply divided nation today. The startling outcome of the election has left many of us confused and frightened. We reach out — to friends, family, colleagues, Twitter acquaintances — to try and make sense of it all. As those around us regroup to rise up and fight once again for our beliefs, we offer four perspectives on ways we can move forward.
Start a Global Youth Movement
Alice Newell-Hanson, US Managing Editor
There’s been a lot of talk about “us” and “them” in this election cycle. About exactly whose America is/was/will be great or good. And today, one “we” is asking how a large, underestimated “they” elected a racist, xenophobic, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic reality TV star with no political experience into the White House.
Donald Trump’s message relied on a “we,” on rallying what he described in his victory speech today as “the forgotten men and women of our country.” “It’s about us — […] our victory,” he said this morning. “It is time for us to come together as one united people.”
In another wrenching of words from meaning, Trump has commandeered a pronoun of inclusivity to express and create division. Not included in his “we”: the immigrants he threatens to deport from this country, the people of color whose interests and battles he has consistently ignored, the women who he has insulted and assaulted, the differently abled people he has mocked on live television.
Now, it’s up to everyone, truly everyone, to reconsider who “we” are and how we can create true change together, both within the U.S. and beyond. Unity is achievable: just look at the voter map of 18 to 25 year olds. It is overwhelmingly blue. If millennials had been the sole voting block in this election, Hillary Clinton would have won by landslide of 504 electoral votes to Trump’s 23.
This age-filtered U.S. map bears a striking resemblance to the voting pattern of young people in the UK’s EU Referendum. 73% of 18 to 14 year olds who voted in Brexit voted to stay in the Union, compared to just 40% of voters over 65.
What can Americans learn from our UK counterparts? I’m half-British and half-American and I feel strongly that we can and should pool our knowledge and resources across the Atlantic, that we need to create dialog about our countries’ parallel political states. My friends in the UK organized protests, created consciousness raising groups, formed information-sharing networks to educate themselves about their divided nation and fight back against their politicians’ increasingly “them” and “us” rhetoric.
If there is anything to be optimistic about following today’s result, it’s that we as a young population are demonstrably already united, both within and outside national lines. And there has never been a more important time to amplify our voices. If the rising tide of right wing politics in the U.S., in Europe, and elsewhere is to be reversed, it will be young people who’ll push it back. So talk to your friends, learn from them, listen to them, protest alongside them, and let’s show what we can do when we harness the power of true global unity.
Spend Less Time on Instagram and More Time Getting To Know Our Country
Rory Satran, US Editorial Director
Today it was black squares, white squares, “I’m terrified” stickers on Instagram and “I’m moving to Canada” messages on Twitter and Facebook. All year it’s been so many vintage photos of Hillary that we know them all by heart (The Yankees cap with the tailored blazer and gold necklace. The pink suit with the red sunglasses.) The young — and less young — people who drive America’s creative and media industries are geographically isolated in blue states on the coasts. And of our own devices, we are ideologically isolated by social media. As Andrew Kuo tweeted, “We wrote 23984712985371 tweets about Trump and he dominated that election.”
Social media is an endlessly powerful tool that has supported uprisings in the Arab Spring and important movements like Black Lives Matter. And it has been a key component of this election for all parties. I personally have been grateful for my online community throughout the election, and most importantly, today. For the friends who urged us to donate to Planned Parenthood and the NAACP. For the information about protests and gatherings and reminders to drink water and wine.
But I have never been more convinced that we as a collective, creative group need to spend less time on Instagram and more time getting to know our country. I know editors who go to Paris and Milan several times a year but have never visited Missouri, Wisconsin, or Kentucky. Go to the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, where thousands are protesting the DAPL. Go to East Chicago, Indiana, where folks have been displaced from their homes built on toxic soil. Go to the last coal mines in West Virginia where men don’t feel qualified to seek other jobs. We need to become more intimate with the reality of the United States.
This election has seen endless booing, mean-spirited chanting, and the most vulgar memes imaginable – from all sides. We don’t need to agree with people who have fundamentally different views from us, but we must know what we are up against, and try to understand one another. Our activism won’t change minds and lives if we are only preaching to the choir. As Obama said this morning, the country needs “a sense of unity, a sense of inclusion, a respect for our institutions.” The way forward is together.
Support The Causes That Matter To You
Hannah Ongley, US Fashion News Editor
It’s difficult to feel galvanized on a day that has underscored the worst parts about about our country. America has elected a man who built his campaign on racism and misogyny, and next January will only mark four more years of the same. But as our president and Republican-led senate work to undo the precious steps we’ve taken towards equal rights and environmental protection, it’s more important than ever for us to keep moving forward. Be scared, be heartbroken, be angry, and then be productive. Donate to Planned Parenthood, GLAAD, and The American Leaders Against Hate and Anti-Muslim Bigotry Campaign. Find your local Black Lives Matter chapter, join the fight against hate, campaign for gun control, and protest police violence. Serve as an advocate for immigrant children and help protect LGBTQ youth from homelessness. Sign up for alerts from NextGen Climate, because our new government doesn’t believe climate change exists. Every vote counted and everything we do now can too.
Pursue and Practice Creative Empathy
Emily Manning, US Associate Editor
I have one sibling, a brother two years younger than me. We share an apartment, we have both been fortunate enough to earn jobs at the magazines that helped crystallize the people we are today, we are both queer. I have never learned so much from someone, and I don’t think he’ll ever stop helping me grow. After the Orlando shooting occurred this summer, he shared one of his favorite books with me, A Selection of Snapshots by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. It’s a deeply personal collection of the artist’s candid photographs — of his collection of toys, of his cats, of, in his words, “days of clean blue skies” — all accompanied by just as beautiful words. We sat in our living room and read these statements out loud to each other, affirming their veracity despite feeling at odds with ourselves and our country: “to a joyful, healthy, queer, lovely, sunny, warm blue, happy, hopeful summer.” That was written in 1993, a year when nearly 42,000 Americans died of AIDS-related complications (just as Gonzalez-Torres would three years later). Such a hopeful statement seemed far outside the thinking of its turbulent time, just as it seemed far from the reality of Orlando’s aftermath. Yet, the book not only helped me reconnect with myself and my community; it helped the many friends I shared it with.
Moving forward from this fundamental destabilization of our values, aspirations, and dreams will not be easy. To start, I plan to reinvest time in the things, people, places, and communities that I love, that help me heal, and that make me who I am. I plan to share them with other people. More importantly, I pledge to really listen and strive to learn from all they have to share with me. And I encourage everyone, just as I have to keep encouraging myself, to move forward by creating things that will help people make sense of their own uncertain futures. Whether in anger, sadness, despondency, rebellion, dejection, or affirmation, make art, music, films, clothing, books, parties, ideas, resources, activist interventions, networks, and share them. It may sound self-centered, or stemming from a place of privilege, and in many ways, it is. So do everything you possibly can to contribute to an environment in which people who lack similar resources and support are able to express themselves urgently and creatively, too. It is clear this nation fundamentally lacks empathy — that we cannot comprehend, let alone care about, how our actions and choices bear enormous consequence for the people around us — and we need radically creative ideas and solutions from absolutely everyone to bridge this divide. Try your best to really listen to and learn from the people that you love, the people you don’t understand, and especially the people you think you hate.
Credits
Photography Mayan Toledano