Donald Trump's victory has made our fight for justice more clear than ever

Impact

The unthinkable has happened: Donald Trump has been elected president of the United States.

A man who bragged about groping women, threatened to ban Muslims from entering the country and called Mexicans rapists will in just over two months be the leader of our country. What's worse: We chose this. More than 50 million Americans, from Florida to Michigan to Ohio, felt that Donald Trump best represented their interests. He tapped into white America's deepest fears and highest aspirations. He spoke to their desire for a mythic America of the past, one where white privilege and the benefits that go along with it — affordable housing, safe neighborhoods, access to higher education — went unchallenged.

But for the rest of us: This is an unprecedented opportunity.

We can no longer pretend that we're beyond race. We can no longer act as if sexism is a thing of the past. A living, breathing embodiment of its existence has now been chosen to lead the most powerful country in the world, and we must reckon with the fact that he is America's creation. 

But we are, too. We're the Mexicans he wants to deport, the Muslims he wants to shame, the black communities he thinks are hellscapes. We no longer have the luxury of pretending that people in power will concede to our very existence. We'll have to fight harder than ever, but now there's no denying that what we're fighting for is real. Whether it's black lives or gender equality, Native sovereignty or environmental justice, we now have a common enemy around which to rally.

Let's fight that enemy. Together. 

November 9, 2016 5:02 p.m. Eastern: This article has been updated.