These girls were crushed when Hillary lost in 2016. Four years later, they?ve created their own stro
Four years ago, in a suburban living room, sprawled out on wall-to-wall Stainmaster beige carpet, I witnessed the birth of revolutionaries.
It started with tears, because the middle school girls had their election night watch party crushed — along with their dreams for that female future that T-shirt slogans promised — when Hillary Clinton did not become the nation’s first female commander in chief.
“So I’m not afraid to admit that I cried when Trump won,” said Sydney Jones, 17.
Sydney was one of the girls who let me hang out with her in a Northern Virginia home on election night in 2016. I imagined that middle school girls in that pupa state of womanhood, before glass ceilings and dating and discrimination crystallized their outlooks, would be the ones most impacted by the historic moment when a woman became president. Better than any bedazzled slogan or motivational meme, this would be proof that the world was theirs to conquer.
But that night, I watched her face as the map across the television screen bled red with Trump’s electoral college victories. She cried “because America had just voted in someone who’s unqualified and who had previously shown prejudice towards African Americans and women like myself,” she said this week, as she cautiously hopes for a different outcome this Election Day.
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Their world was one where the hatred seen on the campaign trail wasn’t okay. A kid in their middle school would get suspended if he said or did half the things candidate Donald Trump had. And for months, they thought the negativity would end after that election night — that America would settle down to abide by the same rules applied to students of Washington Irving Middle School.
“That night was definitely a slap in the face,” said Mirette Arafa, 17. “Being so young and seeing that a man could say such incredibly vile things about women and then become president was a shock. I don’t think I expected it to happen. I really thought Hillary Clinton was going to be our president.”
Lauren Dent, now 16, told me about an election at her school five years ago.
“We had a class election. And there was only one boy who ran for something. And, like, five girls ran for the same thing,” Lauren remembered.
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“And all of the boys voted for that one boy. None of them voted for any of the girls,” she said. “It didn’t matter if they were more polite or had better ideas. He won because they all just voted for him.”
Then she saw the same dynamic play out in America.
“My first reaction was just instant shock when Hillary Clinton didn’t win,” Lauren said. “Then, I have to say, my second feeling was fear.”
As a young Black woman, she felt like her world saw two strikes against her.
“I never used to be afraid of seeing the American flag,” she said. “Now, when I see it hanging off someone’s truck, I have to wonder if that person is racist.”
She decided she wasn’t having it. Though they may not have understood where their anger was coming from, none of the girls was going to tolerate having their dreams, their rules for behavior, the flag they pledged their allegiance to at assemblies hijacked.
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Each one, as I checked back in with them in the days before this election, has grown fiercer, more emboldened, more determined to make a difference.
And weirdly, they have Trump to thank for that.
“It hurts at first, to read or hear what he’s said or done, or who he’s decided to endorse as ‘good people,’ but it’s been a form of empowerment,” Mirette said. “I’m not sure that if Hillary had won, I would have stuck up for myself as much as I do now. I understand entirely — via my own experiences, and now hers — what it’s like to be prepared and competent for the job, just for a man to be able to assume the role basically because he’s a man.”
The girls have marched, protested, founded, organized and joined.
“I know you are here because you want to be the generation that fixes the problem as opposed to passing it on to your children and grandchildren,” said Jocelyn McCullough, 17, at one of those rallies. She, too, was moved to action not only by her activist ancestors, but also by the growing racism she saw under the Trump presidency.
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Four years ago, they talked about dreams of med school or law school. Now, most of them want to become policymakers, change agents, fighters.
After Clinton lost, Lauren was inspired to run for student council at her middle school in Virginia. Her fiery campaign and fresh ideas not only got her elected to the council, but they earned her the most votes, making her student body president.
There, she created student-involved activities and organized and ran student walkouts honoring the lives of children killed by school shooters.
“Our generation in particular is not going to be quiet,” she said. “We are immune to dysfunction and disaster. From the beginning, when we were little children, we were practicing active-shooter drills. Now we’re not even in class because of covid. We’re going to make change.”
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Their first worry if Trump is victorious is for the safety of themselves, their family and friends.
“If he wins, I know it will motivate me more to continue my work with anti-racist groups,” Jocelyn said. “I can’t believe we are dealing with this uncertainty of safety due to an election. Nevertheless, we cannot stay in shock, but have to get to work no matter who wins.”
But the girls, who are all young women of color, are hopeful that Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) — another woman of color — will give them the historic win they were anticipating four years ago.
“After growing up, experiencing what the world really has to say about women, being able to understand what that means for me, seeing Kamala Harris, a woman of color, standing up there, would be the glass ceiling exploding,” Mirette said.
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“It’s smaller, compared to if Hillary won president, but removing Trump and Pence and replacing them with competent leadership that respects women, and includes a woman of color itself, is well overdue,” she added. “No sweeter way to show them the door.”
Twitter: @petulad
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