From our CEO: I will not dampen my anger out of fear
By: Kate Snyder, APR
Nov 6, 2024
Category: P&G culture
I knew I needed to say something this morning. I knew I wanted to say something this morning. Though I've stepped away from social media and have become less visible and less public in recent years, I still understand the role I play in many different communities facing deep and complicated reactions and realities today.
I'm angry. My first and strongest emotion this morning was anger.
I can't pretend I'm in a place to share solutions or optimism or wise counsel. Mostly I just want to burn it all down.
That's been my standard greeting today. Walking down the hall of my child’s school this morning – sunglasses on, wearing a “toxic masculinity ruins the party again” T-shirt, clutching my coffee – the majority of people I passed simply got a tip of the coffee mug and a “burn it all down” greeting.
And then I went to a Big ‘Ol Business Luncheon. For some reason, I felt it was important to go to that today. I can't quite say why. Maybe I didn’t want to be alone, maybe I felt like it was important to show up and be seen and keep going today, maybe I felt other people might need my steely rage, maybe I wanted other people to see my VERY ACTIVE bitch face for selfish reasons. But I went.
Today doesn’t feel like 2016 for me. In 2016, I still had this weird sense of hope that people didn't understand what it was they’d done. There is no such naïveté for me anymore.
I also recognize that, while in 2016, my immediate response was to rally the troops and try to determine a course of action, I've learned a lot about how different people need different things since then.
Some people are sad today. Some people are afraid their friends and family will find out how they voted. Some people are afraid for their rights. Some people feel defeated. Some people feel like they can't go on. Some people are scared for the safety of their children. Some people fear for their lives. There are a lot of people feeling a lot of things.
It's still hard for me to isolate much of anything except the feeling of anger.
While I was at this Big ‘Ol Business Function, where I already stand out as a female small business owner, one who is relatively outspoken, who swears, and who generally is seen as a “strong personality,” I was chatting with a couple older white men in positions of power.
One says to me, “How are you doing today, Kate?” And I said, “How the fuck do you think I’m doing today, GenericMaleName?” Then there was a little bit of a chuckle.
The other man, out of what I genuinely believe to be a place of concern and fear for me as a small business owner, said “You’ve got to be careful wearing your heart on your sleeve in this room.”
And that’s when I knew what I wanted to say today.
To a certain extent, I am insulated by privilege. I’m a white woman with a college education. I am straight-presenting in a hetero relationship.
But I am still a woman, and a liberal one at that.
So when I heard that phrase to be careful not to wear my heart on my sleeve, my knee-jerk and immediate reaction was, “I don't give a fuck who knows how I feel.”
Today, I FEEL angry.
I am angry Donald Trump was elected president again. I’m angry that my own reproductive health is at risk. I am angry that the economic projections of this election outcome are negative for my company. I’m angry that my kid has more empathy toward people than our president-elect does. I am angry that statistically proven facts and policies will be discredited, discounted and erased over the next four years. I am angry that people of certain races, religions, genders, and sexualities are genuinely afraid for their safety and rights.
And I'm angry that many people have reason to be afraid based on the rhetoric that’s been spewed by the president-elect, the vice president-elect, and others who campaigned on their behalf. I am deeply angry for the many people who have had to fight these fights for so much longer than I have. I'm angry that we have to continue to fight.
We will.
There will always be those who recognize that their own economic prosperity must come second to the safety, security and rights of those who have been intentionally and systematically oppressed. I’m angry there aren’t more people who understand injustice at a systems level, and vote accordingly.
It’s possible to be angry without causing harm. It is not my right to threaten anyone, no matter how much I disagree. It’s not my right to make other people feel unsafe because of how they voted. It is not my right to spread lies and engage in libel or slander.
But it is my right to say I’m angry at those who did.
This morning, when I said to my child I was angry at the outcome, my kid said, “Mama, you have to be careful what you say now.”
And, despite everything, I was able to look my child in the eyes and say, “The First Amendment protects my freedom of speech. I can say that I’m angry. I can say I believe that hate toward people who are different races or religions is wrong. I can say things that are rooted in facts and research, and I can say when people are spreading lies that aren’t. I can say that I think all of this is so so so wrong.”
Might there be consequences? Yes. And am I willing to face those? Abso-fucking-lutely.
I won’t be careful, dampening my anger out of fear of the repercussions. And I won’t be quiet.
It is my First Amendment right to say I am angry on behalf of myself and all those hurting today.
I don’t know how to close this out, or what else to say right now. But I do know that when I wake up tomorrow, my First Amendment rights will still be there, consequences be damned. And I will use my words to fight with facts, empathy and integrity.
