Racine---About two-dozen members of the Olympia Brown Unitarian Universalist Church met in the sanctuary Wednesday night, looking for answers and assurances in the wake of Donald Trump’s White House victory.
Part political discussion and part support group, speakers were fearful that the election results would lead to a rise in hate crimes, validate hurtful speech and result in the break-up of immigrant families.
One woman of mixed race said a silver lining for her is that the problem of racism in America is front and center more so than ever. "I feel validated that 50% of our population basically voted for a blatant racist," she said. "To me that says we have a real problem recognizing racism.'
The topic of class division also came up, with several speakers fearing that non-college educated whites who supported Trump took personal offense at the Saturday Night Live skits that poked fun at Trump (and to a degree Hillary Clinton). "They took all the Saturday Night Live and everything else as a direct slap to whatever their upbringing was,"another woman said. "And with a vengeance in their own way they took control."
Non-college educated whites, as it turned out, supported Trump in greater numbers than did voters with a college education.
A measure of optimism was put forth by former State Senator John Lehman, who said checks and balances will remain in the political process. "Within the Republican Party and certainly from Democrats you're going to get opposition to crazy ideas if Donald Trump doesn't govern in a way that listens to people," Lehman said. He'll hear about it and he won't get the support."
Lehman added that there are still plenty of ways for people who don't agree with Trump's ideas to get involved in the political process.
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