Last year in November, I participated in NaNoWriMo -- until the presidential election. To a nation's horror, 45 -- many of us do not say his name -- won the election, and the concept of empathy toward those not white, male, and Christian seemed to die overnight. Hate speech immediately blossomed like black, fetid flowers; Latino/as, Moslems, women, immigrants, liberals and anyone with empathy were targeted with jeers and threats, and sometimes by physical violence.
I did not win NaNo last year; I couldn't write after that day. The world I fought for -- where each person's uniqueness was valued -- seemed to have died overnight. I felt my life was imminently in danger, because once I had been targeted for violence for being different. Many people -- those who hadn't answered their traumas with aggressive hatreds -- kept on keeping on in those days while cowering within themselves. Those with aggressive hatreds rejoiced. Others ignored the Nazi flags and assumed that since the world would be alright for them, everyone would be fine.
Many writers, it turned out, have had trouble writing in the aftermath of the last presidential election. In the internet article Writing Fiction after Trump (2016), written in the aftermath of the election, the author interviewed several literary writers about writing post-election. Many, like me, struggled, with one author, James Scott, expressing that he couldn't pull up the empathy to do so.
I eventually got back to writing, after I quit cowering under my bed -- figuratively, not literally. I talked myself out from under my bed because the white supremacists and the pussy-grabbers and the so-called rebels wanting to take the country back to slavery needed someone to stand against them. I write, and have always written, to oppose hatred of those who are not like us.
To show empathy, with the best of my words, with the best of my skill, with the best of my humility, is why I write.
Tuch, B. (2016). Writing fiction after Trump. Available: http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/writing-fiction-after-trump-how-do-writers-d [October 7, 2017].
Empathy and kindness is up to each individual person. Make the effort to be kind and empathetic to the people that you encounter on a daily basis. Dont worry about who sits in the Whitehouse. Lead by example.
ReplyDeleteThis is Lanetta
Right now, we're in a place in the US where empathy is eroding. I can erve by example, but I also want to find a way where empathy can become a treasured value again.
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