Many people in Milwaukee are still coming to grips with the results of the presidential election. More than 1,000 people gathered in Red Arrow Park on Thursday night and then took to the streets to protest Donald Trump’s impending presidency.
Rallies were held in other citiesacross the country for a second night in a row. Some marchers in downtown Milwaukee voiced a desire to keep the demonstrations peaceful.
Chanting “Not My President” and carrying signs that read “End Racism,” the crowd in Milwaukee lamented the outcome of the election. A woman named Sarah spoke through a bullhorn. She says she watched in disbelief as the election results poured in on Tuesday night.
“I was speechless, stunned, I had tears in my eyes because I was thinking about the safety of my Muslim family because Donald Trump has spread hate across this country,” Sarah says.
Sarah vowed that there will be more demonstrations.
Another disappointed person, Anika Kowalik, thinks Donald Trump doesn’t care about minorities. “He’s openly racist and it’s absurd that he wants to build a wall between Mexico and America to keep Mexicans out because they’re pouring in,”she says.
Kowalik says she cast her ballot for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, but she knows some people who didn’t vote. She believes those who stayed home from the polls, helped Trump win. Kowalik is an art student at MIAD in Milwaukee and fears she’ll have a hard time finding a job when she graduates next year.
“Eventually I want to open my own non-profit arts organization and with a Trump presidency I don’t see that happening for a very long time because he’s going to make it extremely difficult to make that possible for me,” Kowalik says.
“When the Trump campaign says Make America Great Again, we know what that really means. It means Make America White Again," Eric Beaumont says. The musician and paralegal in Milwaukee calls the results of the election disturbing. Beaumont says he plans on participating in more marches, but thinks the only way to move forward is to stay positive.
“Peaceful demonstrations but at the same time energetic, spirited demonstrations with a sense of humor and optimism,” Beaumont says.
Another person here is Joe, who didn’t want to give his last name. He says he plans to reach out to neighbors and co-workers. “We move forward by building working class communities, multi-racial working class communities, unions, tenants associations and other kinds of political organizations that can build working class power to fight back directly and not through this electoral system that’s blatantly corrupt. We can’t trust politicians in power to serve our interests. We need to fight for our own interests in the streets and in the communities,” Joe says.
