United States was my home for six years, where I felt more accepted more than I am in my hometown. The United States I know embraced cultural diversity, where people pour into the street and mingle regardless of their skin colors, sexual orientation, backgrounds, and faiths. The United States I know is a nation undivided.
But as we all know and we all have feared, it won’t be the same again. As a minority in the States, I’m not sure I will be as accepted as I was before, seeing majority of polls favored the candidate popularly spreading hatred towards minority, ban against the people of my religion, and committing abuse to women.
As everyone else quoted, “Hate won tonight.”
Now that I’m back to my home country, I thought everything would be much better. Like the United States, Indonesia is a melting pot, a nation built with unity in diversity as the foundation. But this morning, I woke up to children chanting profane words and hate speech on the street against the city’s governor, who is of a minority. These children couldn’t be older than ten. These children are of the people of my religion, and yes we are the majority bunch of this country. But instead of taking their side, I wanted to yell at them, telling them they had no idea what had actually happened and their hate speech was just provoked by shallow-minded adults or whoever raised them.
Instead, I just sat. I thought over and savored about these hate acts. From the election result to the hate speech, there is just too much happening in the last twenty-four hours. Even worse, these occurrences were just a small chunk of all other acts that happened worldwide. They are disheartening but this is the reality we live in today. It’s sad.
As a part of minority in US, I fear of what is coming should I return there. However, as a part of majority in my own home country, I can't live with the hatred thrown against the people that are also my brothers and sisters.
Thus, all of these acts proved that being part of both a majority and a minority, still make me feel insecure. I no longer feel safe living in this world.
But what did I make out of these? What lesson did I learn?
First off, I learned that the children and the US president-elect's supporters share a common mindset: that they believe a nation should be ruled by a member of the majority.
Secondly, on a brighter note, I learned that in the world full of hate, there is still love, compassion, and peace left somewhere, and it starts from you. Just yesterday when I went to the department store, an elderly man held the door for me and my family. He muttered “After you.” with a smile. If you live in the US, this is a common sight. But in my country, I get used to having doors slammed on my face in public space. However, this single act of kindness put a smile to my face and as everyone quotes “restored my faith in humanity”.
I don't know what you believe in, or if you believe in any, but before we pin-point others and divide others based on what we look or what we're made of, can we just for one moment simply be a human being?
There is too much hatred today. It's taken too much lives. It’s a tough world we live in now regardless where you live. The only way to defeat the hatred is to keep the positive vibes up in the air.
To all my American friends and those who feel fragile, attacked, unprotected, and insecure, we’re all in this together. Stay strong. Let’s move on and not dwell in the dark days. Put your chin up. Let the election result or other hate acts become a turning point for us to be better people, be bolder, and work even harder for what we all believe in.
What happened happened. You can go through this. But you can make someone's day a little better just by doing something nice and putting a smile on their face.
As everyone else quoted, “Hate won tonight.”
Now that I’m back to my home country, I thought everything would be much better. Like the United States, Indonesia is a melting pot, a nation built with unity in diversity as the foundation. But this morning, I woke up to children chanting profane words and hate speech on the street against the city’s governor, who is of a minority. These children couldn’t be older than ten. These children are of the people of my religion, and yes we are the majority bunch of this country. But instead of taking their side, I wanted to yell at them, telling them they had no idea what had actually happened and their hate speech was just provoked by shallow-minded adults or whoever raised them.
Instead, I just sat. I thought over and savored about these hate acts. From the election result to the hate speech, there is just too much happening in the last twenty-four hours. Even worse, these occurrences were just a small chunk of all other acts that happened worldwide. They are disheartening but this is the reality we live in today. It’s sad.
As a part of minority in US, I fear of what is coming should I return there. However, as a part of majority in my own home country, I can't live with the hatred thrown against the people that are also my brothers and sisters.
Thus, all of these acts proved that being part of both a majority and a minority, still make me feel insecure. I no longer feel safe living in this world.
But what did I make out of these? What lesson did I learn?
First off, I learned that the children and the US president-elect's supporters share a common mindset: that they believe a nation should be ruled by a member of the majority.
Secondly, on a brighter note, I learned that in the world full of hate, there is still love, compassion, and peace left somewhere, and it starts from you. Just yesterday when I went to the department store, an elderly man held the door for me and my family. He muttered “After you.” with a smile. If you live in the US, this is a common sight. But in my country, I get used to having doors slammed on my face in public space. However, this single act of kindness put a smile to my face and as everyone quotes “restored my faith in humanity”.
I don't know what you believe in, or if you believe in any, but before we pin-point others and divide others based on what we look or what we're made of, can we just for one moment simply be a human being?
There is too much hatred today. It's taken too much lives. It’s a tough world we live in now regardless where you live. The only way to defeat the hatred is to keep the positive vibes up in the air.
To all my American friends and those who feel fragile, attacked, unprotected, and insecure, we’re all in this together. Stay strong. Let’s move on and not dwell in the dark days. Put your chin up. Let the election result or other hate acts become a turning point for us to be better people, be bolder, and work even harder for what we all believe in.
What happened happened. You can go through this. But you can make someone's day a little better just by doing something nice and putting a smile on their face.
No comments:
Post a Comment