America is violence.

America is a land, “where all men are created equal”

But what happens when those men are people of color, Islamic, gay, or female.

Violence is hate crimes against people with various skin tones

America is people fearing for themselves because of the discrimination, and people worrying for their loved ones

because there’s no telling how the world will treat them.

America is where the country has been divided due to the Black Lives Matter protests

no one is telling you that your life doesn’t matter, they are just speaking out against the injustices they experience.

America is violence.

 

Violence is anti-Islamic rhetoric

it targets an entire religion instead of facing the fact that

like any religion, Islam has radical individuals.

Since 2014, hate crimes against Muslims has increased by nearly 67%.

America is my friend’s mother begging her to not wear her hijab,

because she fears that her daughter will be attacked.

America has morphed into a creature where its future master believed that Muslim people should be registered in a national database,

much like the history seen during the Holocaust

yet much of the country does not view this as alarming.

America is violence.

 

Violence is targeting the LGBTQ community for not living the same lifestyle.

Within the United States, the rate of attempted suicides is four times higher in the LGB community

when compared to the rest of the population.

America is a place where it’s future leaders support gay conversion therapy,

a place where after the election, hotlines for LGBT suicide saw a spike in calls by nearly 50% only one hour after the election.

America is violence.

 

Violence is sexism as it tells me that I am not as entitled to my own life and choices,

as I am seen as a mere object rather than a person,

and that my emotions are all controlled by my ovaries.

America is a place where my body became a battleground,

because my future is better dealt within the hands of politicians than myself.

Suddenly, America makes me just another statistic

as I fear that one day I will become one of the three that will be sexually assaulted.

America is where I felt uncomfortable at the age of twelve,

because a man of nearly fifty years looked at my body like a hungry wolf.

America is a place where I was taught it was okay to take sexual harassment in a workplace,

because that’s “just how you earn money.”

America is a place where I will receive only 78.3% of my male counterpart’s salary,

essentially telling any woman that their work is not as significant as a man’s.

America is violence.

 

America preaches acceptance, equality, and tolerance.

Yet, we have never seen true equality

as we always continue to hate on the non-Christian, non-white, non-males.

Now tell me how we are a land of true equality,

when it all boils down to

violence.