Letter to the Editor: Fighting hate with hate is not the answer

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Ruchii Sheth, sophomore studio art major in printmaking says America needs to give President-Elect Donald J. Trump a chance. 

*Editor’s note: this letter contains graphic language

Right here, right now we live in a world divided. Divided by the categories the society has labeled you as: divided by race, ethnicity, age, gender and more. Why do we need to discriminate?

Discrimination has been the root of hate and self-destruction since the beginning. You don’t agree that a certain “kind” of people should be treated as well as you? Well, you become an opponent towards these people. The game starts, violence is placed and you keep playing and hurting until either or both loses.

Two days after Donald Trump was elected, while walking to a class I had a group of people yell “grab her by the pussy” to me as they laughed and drove away. It was so quick and abrupt that I did not have a chance to react to it. If I had, I may have yelled some hurtful words back at them. But then I thought to myself, isn’t reacting that way going to make myself no less disrespectful than them? Yes, I was furious and embarrassed, but honestly it’s not the first time I have had something this obnoxious thrown towards me. So can we just stop being disrespectful to each other? Haven’t we already had enough? Yes, I know Donald Trump won, but that doesn’t mean that this country has to be divided into several pieces. This world has come to a place where some of us are trying to be equally accepted while the rest of us are stuck with labeling differences. It doesn’t matter what, who or where you are, fighting hate with hate is not making anything better for anyone.

I am not for Donald Trump and his ideas, nor am I against completely. I do not think that we should entirely put the blame of this country’s differences on one man and his team. He has been elected as America’s president for the next four years. Instead of “booing” him, you need to give him a chance. I know it’s hard for some of us but, see it the way I try to: no single person can change the faith of this country, and no single person can break us. It is the people who fuel this country, and it is us who will decide what happens.

What good is going to come from you reacting the same way as someone did which in turn hurt you or people close to you? I did want to hate the individuals who disrespected not just me but all women. But I don’t think it’s the answer. Fighting for something you believe in is a positive thing. By including violence, you are turning the it into a negative idea. Is causing riots while protesting against Donald Trump worth it if you turn yourself into the very thing you are protesting against?

Why turn toward violence while you are literally talking about ending violence? Unhappy about Trump degrading women? Then don’t go on social media and degrade or “slut shame” his wife. Be the better human. You don’t agree with the way minorities are being treated disrespectfully? Don’t tell your “white” friends that you don’t want anything to do with them anymore just because they happen to be “white.”

Protest with peace. Don’t react to hate the same negative way. Educate others. Let’s just be souls that are there for each other, let’s care for each other regardless of this society’s “labels.” Love.

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