i just voted and unexpectedly walked out crying. this election cycle has been heavy on my heart, i wanted Bernie Sanders to be my president. i wanted a president with a radical message, solidarity with those who needed it most, a message of hope and faith. # there is nothing however, no disappointment, no confusion, nothing that would keep me from the polls today. voting is a HARD WON RIGHT, it is a privilege. we live in a country where my existence as a biracial woman was once illegal. a country where others still face this same threat, this same language, this same attempt at dehumization. this is why it matters to be involved in the political process. i have a complicated relationship with my country, as do many people from historically marginalized communities and their neighbors in the community of conscience. until Barack Obama i never proudly waved an American flag, because the American History I learned growing up did not include representations of me unless it was me fighting for my life, it did not encourage me to be proud, i did not see myself in it. my relationship with my country has been tonally one of a fight for survival since i was old enough to understand what it meant to be a citizen and then what it meant to be a full citizen. and this is still the fight for my people. # Prof Jonathan Holloway added weight to the word citizen for me in college and taught me that full citizenship is one of the most powerful privileges we have as Americans. # when i was with a group of young diverse and talented image creators in Yosemite and @vicktoriuh pulled out a flag i didn’t know how to feel. it shocked me at first that the flag had been carefully folded and brought with us on the Find Your Park Expedition. with us, a group of minorities, and that it was being waved and embraced with pride, our Americanness was being celebrated, claimed, declared. Us. even while taking these photos i wasn’t sure how to hold the flag, how to relate to it. but when i saw this image i remembered, “I, Too Am America." # today i am a citizen of this nation, one with the privilege to vote who has exercised her right, and I am proud. # photo by @woosupreme (at Crown Heights, Brooklyn)
