Within hours of Donald Trump being announced as the 47th president of the United States, Zaineb Haider received a text message from an old contact - a white woman.
It was probably intended as a message of support, with the sender likely checking in on Haider after the Democratic nominee and sitting Vice President Kamala Harris lost in a landslide defeat on Tuesday’s US presidential election.
But the subject and tone infuriated the 24-year-old, Haider told Middle East Eye.“The message asked if I was feeling okay [about Trump] coming back to office,” she said.
“I told her: ‘I haven’t been fucking okay for an entire year’.”
For more than 13 months, Israeli forces have killed at least 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the vast majority of them women and children, with schools, hospitals, universities and critical infrastructure specifically targeted by Israeli air strikes and shelling.
Haider said she immediately recognised the message for what it was: liberal’s shedding tears and only expressing concerns about the future of minorities and others after Trump’s re-election, not what came before his resounding victory.
While I can agree with some of Haider’s sentiment about our fair weather allies, perhaps she should also take a look at her own communities myopic lack of support right back.
While her community didn’t cause Trump to be elected outright, her community were very vocal in not supporting Harris and reflected that in the election this year.
There were many within her community that didn’t vote or voted for Trump as a teachable moment, enough so that it really did make an impact and was noteworthy to be reported.
So honestly, while I do feel for her, to her I say clean up your own house first because your community literally voted for this.