Vote Against the Groper in Chief This Election

Nov. 2, 2016 / By

Editor’s Note: VoiceWaves #Vota blog posts feature diverse youth commentary and views on the upcoming elections. Don’t forget to turn out the youth vote on Nov. 8th!

Last weekend, a young man groped me at a college party in a warehouse in the city of Huntington Park. His actions reflect the misogynistic words of a man who is now running for president.

“Grab them by the p****. You can do anything.”

After hearing the 10-year-old #TrumpTapes exposing Donald Trump’s vulgar conversation, I felt like vomiting. I couldn’t believe that someone running for president speaks about women like that.

To make matters worse, he dismissed his comments as “locker room talk.”

Locker room talk: offensive, crude, and often sexual comments exchanged by men. Harmless right? But the following list of stats doesn’t convince me that it’s just locker room talk:

So, no, I don’t think it’s just talk.

Trump denied forcibly kissing and groping women after the lewd video exposed him a couple of weeks ago. “No one has more respect for women than me,” he said in his defense. But, that doesn’t add up, so my common sense begs this question: if someone respects women so much, why did he need to sexually objectify them through “locker room talk”? Sorry Trump, but I’m not buying it. Instead, I’m disgusted and I’ll be voting for someone else.

As for the people who say they aren’t voting in this presidential election, they piss me off – especially those my age: Millennials. We’re supposed to be the most educated generation, yet I can’t believe some Millennials won’t exercise their right to vote against this terrifying, pumpkin-head-looking, childish, bigot running for president. Sure, the electoral votes matter more (yadda yadda yadda), but wouldn’t you want to look back one day and say, “Yeah, I voted for that other candidate because I wanted to be on the right side of history?”

At the moment when that guy casually groped my butt as he walked past me at the party, I was furious and abhorred – much like how I felt when I first heard the #TrumpTapes. Although that guy didn’t grab my crotch, it still didn’t make it any better. Being groped has happened many times before throughout my life, usually in crowded places. But this time, I caught the culprit.

He cruised to a couch and took a seat and just sat there with a mild grin. I was appalled by him – this guy who probably treats women as nasty as Trump, believing that women are made for men’s enjoyment, to be stereotyped, insulted, belittled, demeaned, excluded, oppressed, abused, and raped.

I went up to this guy, smacked him in the face, and got him kicked out of the party. I poured my drink on him and hurled my cup at him as he was escorted out.

I’m sure his shirt was all sticky and that I humiliated him. Frankly, I’m glad I ruined his night. But it’s an understatement for me to say that people like him ruin my life.

Please, look back at those statistics, and think again about voting – before another guy that thinks he can “do anything” to women becomes president.

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Crystal Niebla

Crystal was raised in South Los Angeles and is the first college graduate in her family. She is a class of 2016 CSULB graduate who has served as an editor for her campus newspaper and freelanced for the Long Beach Post and Random Length News. Crystal is now a Report for America corps member, covering the Westside for the Long Beach Post. Follow her work @crystalniebla on Twitter and @crystalniebla_media on Instagram.