'We will wish we prevented this' says critic Jesse Wente after Trump win
Wente shares his shock and anxiety with Metro Morning host Matt Galloway
Critic Jesse Wente spoke with Matt Galloway on Metro Morning, sharing his thoughts following a shocking Trump win in last night's U.S. presidential election.
Matt Galloway: What was your first reaction, when you heard?
Jesse Wente: I first reflected on a conversation I had when I got home yesterday, with my 10-year-old daughter. The election was on and she was watching it, and she was asking me what I thought would happen, and why I wanted
It is a challenge, when you see behaviours we all wish were eradicated rewarded this way.- Jesse Wente
Hillary Clinton to win. My first thought [after he won] was, 'How do I talk to that Indigenous girl this morning?'… because it is a challenge, when you see behaviours we all wish were eradicated rewarded this way. I was on the show yesterday talking about the difference between being elected and governing. I guess now we'll get to see. But as an Indigenous person a year into the Trudeau government, the difference is very clear, and very apparent.
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MG: Should we be surprised?
JW: We shouldn't be shocked. I don't think when a colonial government elects a white man that it should be shocking. That is the vast majority of the history of colonial states. But we've seen this arise not just in America — look at Brexit. And that wasn't an isolated case either. What we are seeing is historical colonial states reacting to a much changing world.
MG: What is the message this sends to the black communities, to Hispanic communities, to Muslim communities, to women?
JW: That we have to fight harder. That just because we might elect a president who looks closer to us than the previous presidents, that doesn't mean it's a victory over all of these issues. What we've seen from that [Obama] presidency is greater divisions. If Hillary had been elected early this morning, in all likelihood we would have seen
Maybe we can take solace because this is the last vengeful grasp of a system that is on its last legs.- Jesse Wente
greater divisions, because of that. Maybe we can take solace because this is the last vengeful grasp of a system that is on its last legs. I don't think that's how we should view this, though. We should all take a moment to mourn, and hopefully we're already over that. I've got friends in a field in North Dakota who I'm very worried about. I have friends in the Black Lives Matter movement who I'm as worried about if not more today than I was yesterday.
But we also have to use that worry to link hands and arms again, and open our ears and our eyes and listen to each other, including the people who voted for Donald Trump, and we have to understand if we want to prevent things like this going forward. We will likely really wish we prevented this. We live in history. We create history every moment that we exist. And our history, we create history every moment that we exist. And our history resonates, for decades and decades.
With files from Metro Morning