Let’s Talk About The Real Silent Majority

Like most people after the election, I am at a loss for words. I woke up in my bed somehow hoping that the events of the previous day had been a bad dream. I glanced over at my phone to see the 14 text messages I had received from friends and family wondering where it all went wrong and asking if I was okay. I responded to none of them. I stayed in bed from 8:14am to 11:06am. I watched Hillary concede. I received an email from the Hillary campaign thanking me for my service. I cried. I cried some more. I waited for the words to come but they never did. My roommate texted me through the wall to see if I needed anything.

There were still no words. There was only the horrifying mental picture of all those signs the Trump supporters were holding the previous evening. The signs that read, “The Silent Majority.” The Silent Majority. The Silent Majority. The Silent Majority. It ran through my mind on repeat until I dragged myself to my computer, brushed my hair off my tear-stained face, and began slowly stringing together words. So let’s talk about that Silent Motherfucking Majority.

The silent majority belongs to women. It belongs to women who are objectified, assaulted, paid less, gaslit, raped, overlooked for promotions, and told to sit down and shut up about it.

The silent majority belongs to members of the LGBTQ community who suffer privately lest they be ostracized. Who conceal their identities so they won’t be labeled and demeaned.

The silent majority belongs to people of color who know that their skin will influence people’s opinions of them long before they are able to open their mouths. People who were once enslaved, traded, and treated like property by the people who founded this country and who were not allowed to say anything about it.

The silent majority belongs to people with disabilities who are treated as broken and cast aside as ill functioning members of society and who sometimes lack the ability to speak up for themselves.

The silent majority belongs to immigrants who were taken across the Mexican border as young children and told to be quiet and pretend to be sleeping in the back of the car so their native language wouldn’t give them away. Who work 18-hour days in our country and who still cannot become citizens or make their voices heard in our political system.

Together, we are the majority that continues to be silenced.

The silent majority does NOT belong to a bunch of able-bodied white people in middle America. When have you ever been forced to be silent? Our country was founded by a gaggle of white dudes who set you people up to flourish. If you have troubles in your lives, then look in the mirror and take responsibility for them. You are allowed to speak your mind with reckless abandon. You are allowed to do as you please. Do you really have the privileged audacity to call yourselves the silent majority? Fuck you. Fuck you and the gold-plated, one-dimensional, delusional horse you rode in on. You may be a lot of things, but silent has never had to be one of them. You don’t know the meaning of silence. You don’t know how deafening it can be.

In the coming days, weeks, and years, I urge us all to remember the true composition of the silent majority. Trump supporters are not the “silent” majority. The real silent majority has so much work to do. And when the dust has settled and our newfound dreams of moving abroad and starting the fuck over have quelled, we will do that work. We will do it together. Because, as my personal hero once said, we are stronger together. And nasty women will not be silenced.