David Byrne

I have a Brazilian friend who lives in Brooklyn. She moved here a number of years ago after her father and brother were murdered in a drug related incident in Rio. Like a lot of immigrants she moved here in hopes of a better life. It’s tough to move...to leave everything familiar. The tragedies in her family may have been the tipping point. Anyway, she’s been here for years and is close to opening her own business. I may not agree with everything she says (I may empathize more with the pain and anger folks feel although I share her feeling in regards to how that pain and anger were expressed). Here is how one person who came to the U.S. feels (I edited some grammar and spelling for clarity but nothing else). She sent the following to me after Trump’s victory:

I hope we can get through these coming four years with him in office somehow without suffering the consequences of his inexperience too much and dividing the country even more.

I told X (my boss) before the election that Trump was going to win, and X got really mad at me almost calling me delusional.

This is what I wrote the morning we all found out he was officially elected.

I am devastated.

I don't share a lot of my personal life online, but I think it's important to say that as a woman of color, an immigrant and a minority I have to say that this horrifying man in office is a true blow in what looks like the end of democracy, not only in this country, but globally. Donald Trump being elected by this nation for whatever reason including the false pretense that he's a good businessman, the way some understand his way of communicating or simply because some did not want a woman and a intellectual in office is really sad.

His winning this election is a disgrace and sets us back a thousand years. Whoever voted for him and shares his beliefs in the pretense of hoping to see change does not know and understand what change really is. Like I said before his winning does not come as a surprise to me. He only exposes and brings to awareness a platform of hatred, bullying and disrespect of a partially desensitized nation.

Since social media took over, people started to use this way of communicating...and at times to mock one another. Trump showing up and sharing his views just put a face on the people that shared his (professed) beliefs. New York City is NOT the rest of America. I think this is the very reason many of my fellow South Americans moved away from home because of wanting to experience something different than what we were conditioned to. So today we aren't given the opportunity to see that change. But I am hopeful that this will immediately start to inspire all parents that believe in humanity to instill in their little kids what love, family, politics and moral value are. We have got to start somewhere.

I will endure.

But I wanted to point out that in my opinion whoever you may be–the supporters of his–you are the very people whom also will suffer. Just wait and see.

Despite of all odds, I hope we can come together.