Landslide or Call it a Loss

Written By Pink Flowers

Unless it’s a landslide, it don’t really matter to me, y’all — for realz!

Let’s face this shit. If anywhere near 50% of the U.S. population votes for Donald Trump today, it’s already too late. I don’t wanna make it sound like people who vote for Trump are evil or stupid. That’s not the case, and people need to stop fooling themselves into the comfort of thinking intelligence equals progressiveness.

A lot of very smart people was perfectly okay with slavery. A lot o’ very rational folks was fine that women wasn’t allowed to vote. A lot of smart, kind, loving, spiritual, concerned and rational people voted for Donald Trump. People that a lot of liberals likely call friends, probably voted for Trump and just had the sense to keep they mouth shut about it so they liberal friends wouldn’t cancel them. There’s another “fine” effect of the cancel culture, people lie to protect themselves from people whose friendship is conditioned by submission.

We live in a society that seem to be content long as most people is comfortable. Liberals is okay long as we all keep pretending BLM. We live in a society that seems pretty okay with violence done on our behalf. Donald Trump affirm anything’s acceptable (even the wild spread of a lethal virus) long as commerce run smooth. I’m under the impression even people who think of they selves as progressives, wouldn’t give up a single creature comfort to save the life of a sweatshop worker in India.

So, I ain’t going into today with any confidence about the outcome of the election. I’m pretty sure Biden’s gonna win, but that shit’s cold comfort, at best. I ain’t that confident he gonna win by a margin to renew my faith I’m living in a world with enough of a conscience to see the difference between equity and expedience. I’m nervous even a third of the country just don’t care that much about the fate of the planet, racial justice, the rights of people to choose who they love or any of the shit I stand for.

I hope I’m wrong AF. I hope we get to the end of today and only a fringe minority pulls the lever (or checks the box) for anything but a change in the Oval Office. I don’t care about partisanship. For me today ain’t about whether the Democrats or the Republicans win. Today, for me, is about whether America is more than just a football game where people get to root for their side every four years.

Fasten your seatbelts, it’s gonna be a bumpy night!

Pink Flowers

Pink Flowers is a Black trans artist, peacemaker, educator, and pleasure activist whose work lives at the intersection of embodiment, governance, and cultural transformation. Trained in Theater of the Oppressed, Art of Hosting, and Navajo-informed Peacemaking practices, Pink designs spaces where conflict can be addressed, power can be examined, and joy can be reclaimed.

Her artistic and pedagogical practice draws from African trickster cosmology, Brazilian Joker traditions, shamanic ritual, and cooperative economics. She is the founder of the award-winning Falconworks Theater Company (2005–2021), which used popular theater to build civic capacity and participatory leadership in historically marginalized communities.

Pink served for over five years as a trained Peacemaker in the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, facilitating restorative processes within the New York City court system. From 2015–2018, she worked in cooperative business development with the Center for Family Life, supporting worker-owned enterprises in immigrant communities.

She currently serves as Director of Education and Training for the Inter-Cooperative Council in Ann Arbor, where she leads leadership development and conflict engagement initiatives. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally, including at the Stretch Festival in Berlin and the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference.

Across ritual, performance, mediation, and institutional design, Pink’s work asks a central question:

What becomes possible when we refuse shame and choose conscious power instead?

Previous

2020 Post-Election Fog
Next

You F*ck the Police…I’ll Watch