A friendly note to Trump supporters that claim they are good people and NOT racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobes,This is an open letter to you, my fellow Americans, the ones I have heard and seen a lot of this past week on social media or in real life saying things like you have Black or Muslim or Latino friends or that you totally support gay marriage and women's rights and that you are fed up and mad as hell for being called a racist or bigot and the suggestion that you are narrow-minded, intolerant or ignorant is highly insulting and even more infuriating.I understand what it feels like to be put down or called names. I am sorry for anyone who feels like they may have suffered personal attacks, been bullied or felt verbally abused throughout this election cycle, before it and/or after it. Verbal abuse is abhorrent and NEVER okay but I'm here to explain, if you supported Trump and are now upset for having been "mislabeled", you are NOT a victim. Being honest and confronting prejudice is not "bullying" or "name-calling" or "abusive". Its just NOT. Whether you can admit it or not, whether you like it or not, when you support someone who has campaigned on a platform of hate, division and discrimination you in turn have supported hate, division and discrimination. There's no logical way around that even if you have personally denounced the "offensive" soundbites and prejudicial campaign promises of Trump. If you still support a candidate who stands behind this ideology, then I'm sorry to tell you, the labels are warranted.Now before you get all hostile and upset at me for saying this, let me add that I truly believe that many Trump supporters ARE good people at heart and not what I would consider true racists, bigots, sexists, homophobes and/or xenophobes. I realize most of you are not out marching with the KKK, and you are not posting racist propaganda on your social media pages. Some of you have even explicitly expressed that you don't agree with many of the hateful and divisive messages that came from Trump and his campaign. That's great and all but unfortunately it's just not enough to excuse still supporting someone who has promised to take away the rights and liberties of some of your neighbors, family, friends and/or countrymen.Let me put it this way. Imagine you are a German in the 1930's. You say you wholeheartedly support Hitler but you have nothing against Jewish people at all and believe they should be allowed all the same rights as everyone else You denounce anger and hatred against Jews but Hitler doesn't stand up for them when other people lash out against them. He makes promises to do things against them that will take away their rights and liberties and that will detrimentally affect their lives. He appoints people to high positions in government that have publicly voiced disdain toward Jewish people and they want to begin policies that will hurt them. Still you vote for Hitler and you voice your support for Hitler all the while saying that you love all people and don't believe in any sort of racism, antisemitism or hatred against minorities. Even though Hitler has clearly said horrible things, you tell people Hitler didn't mean it, he was just saying those things to get elected. Or Hitler is a good person at heart and you can just tell that he is a good person, even though he has said terrible things and you have never met him in real life. Even though he has promised over and over again to do all kinds of things that you don't agree with, things that may harm other people who don't deserve it, you can somehow magically see into Hitler's soul and know that he will actually protect and unify all the people he has disparaged despite so many of the "off-color" things he has said. If you took that position on Hitler then you were undoubtedly a Nazi, regardless of the "exceptions" you added to your support for him. You can't support Hitler a little and not be considered a Nazi, period.Now before you start sounding off on the Hitler comparison, I am not saying Trump and Hitler are one and the same. Everyone knows it will take some pretty epic and hugely evil acts to truly match Hitler's villainy and even though many have called out similar themes in their rise to power, I think we can all agree that Donald's hate-speech alone, at this point in time, cannot truly be judged next to the atrocious crimes committed by Adolf and his regime. But that said, he has still done a tremendous amount of damage. I keep hearing and seeing so many young American teens in distress all over my social feeds. One of them was a 16 year old Muslim girl that once felt perfectly safe wearing a head scarf at her school who now is being relentlessly insulted by so called Trump supporters and told to go back to her own country despite the fact that she was born in America. Another is a 14 year old that recently came out in a YouTube video. He was filled with so much hope and positivity in that video but now he feels totally crushed that basic equal rights could be taken away from him and doesnt understand why half the country wouldn't stick up for him. There is story after story about hate suddenly on the rise in this country and that is really not cool; A country that is supposed to be based on the principals of liberty and justice for all. Hate and prejudice has always been around but we know this uptick is undeniably a direct result of Trump and his campaign and sadly anyone who has supported him in the face of this has helped contribute to the current mood of our country.It is perfectly understandable that many of you wanted to vote for a candidate that could deliver real political change to our broken system. We need that and I want that too. I can empathize with anyone that has lost their job or needs better pay or better healthcare or just needs to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. You just want to be able to provide a good life for yourself and your families and there should be no shame in that. I can also understand the fear of terrorism and wanting to make sure that anyone coming into our country does not mean to do us harm. I don't want to be blown up anymore than anyone else does so I can fully get behind further safeguarding to our borders and all sorts of discussions about how best to protect ourselves. But there is a huge difference between discussing sensible measures to help protect and better our country than there is with creating a wave of anger and discrimination against innocent minorities. If you can't see that this movement has been more about bigotry than politics than I am afraid we are never going to be able to move forward together. Our country was moving forward in much more all inclusive and tolerant way a year ago than it is today. Minorities from all walks of life felt way more at ease than they do now. That's not imagined or paranoid thinking. It's now a sad fact. If you want to heal the country, stop making excuses and blaming others for this. Stop telling people who have become legitimately scared, hurt and devastated over legitimate concerns to just grow up and get over it because they lost. Instead, try telling them that you are sorry for not standing up for their rights in the first place during the campaign but that you WILL have their backs going forward. DEMAND that the president elect firmly and passionately denounces hatred and prejudice of any kind and any act of discrimination. Its been a week now since Trump has won the Electoral College vote and in that time he has sharply criticized the New York Times, he has criticized people who have protested against HIM, he praised his performance in the debates and he has appointed hate-group activists to high positions in the White House. Why has he not denounced the KKK for throwing a parade in his honor or taken aim at the many other discriminatory actions taking place in his name?Last week, I wrote a petition along with Elijah Berg, that has over 4 million signatures now, appealing to the Electoral College to side with the popular vote and not award the presidency to Trump when the majority of Americans voted against him. Despite the millions of signatures, I'm pretty sure there is a slim to none chance that there will be any change to the status quo so that means a President Trump will likely be our reality for the next 4 years. So in my ever so humble opinion, it is up to ALL of us to make sure that his presidency is not a total and complete disaster. Please remember, silence is acceptance. So I am asking you, the non racist, not homophobic, non xenophobic, not sexist people of America who may have voted for Trump to come together now. Raise your voices and raise them loud to tell the president elect that you support the freedoms and principles our nation was built on and that you will NOT stand for any discrimination against any people, period.As a recording artist I have actually been lucky enough to travel the world and meet so many people of different ethnicities, religions and sexualities from almost every walk of life and I can tell you with certainty there is only one true race on this planet; THE HUMAN RACE!!! We are all people. We all deserve 100% equality and that is it. End of story. Time to stop the anger and hatred. Please give some real thought to all of this and come together for the common good before it's too late. The time is now. #Unite #OneWorld #LoveNotHate #HopeNotFear #LibertyandJusticeForAll #USA #America #MuttArmy #RiseAbove
