Dear Mr. Boriqua305: An Open Letter and Reflection on the 2020 Elections

Photo by Josh Carter on Unsplash

Dear Mr. Boriqua305,

I know it has been a while since we have spoken (and honestly, I am okay with that), but I recently ran across one of your social media posts, and I simply could not ignore it. Please allow me to express some of my concerns.  

I do not follow you on social media, but several mutual friends showed me that you shared the following post after you voted for 45:

I voted to keep America great... I voted for freedom over fear. I voted for life over death. I voted for order over chaos. I voted for capitalism over socialism.  I voted for policy over personality. I voted for school choice. I voted for energy independence. I voted to end wars. I voted for our veterans and heroes. I voted to end human trafficking.  I voted to end mass genocide of babies. I voted against corruption and control. I voted for facts over feelings. I voted for prosperity for all minorities. I voted for actual change for Black America. I voted for religious freedom. I voted for open churches and parachurches. I voted for economic prosperity. I voted for lower taxes. I voted for affordable private healthcare. I voted for hard work and less unemployment. I voted to lessen poverty, crime, and drugs. I voted for the constitution. I voted for freedom of speech. I voted for the right to bear arms. I voted for legal immigration. I voted for love of country. I voted for fair foreign policies.  I voted for peace in the Middle East. I voted for America first policies. I voted against cancel culture and white guilt. I voted against race wars and riots and looting. I voted for police and criminal justice reform. I voted against hate and division. I voted against radical Marxism. I voted against BLM and antifa. I voted against actual racism and pedophilia. I voted against the progressive agenda.  I voted against the deep state and evil media. I voted for conservative values. I voted for equality and justice. I voted for love, peace, and unity.  

I voted because people died so I have the right to vote. I voted because I care about what happens to the best country in the history of the world. I voted because this election affects the whole world.  No matter what happens tomorrow, God is in control and my entire hope is in Him. With that said, we have to do our part and fight for the truth, life, and liberty. May God bless the United States of America. I pray the Lord unifies and heals our land. P.S. Pray and educate yourself on the issues. Love your neighbor. Change starts with YOU. Please vote.

As a budding community organizer and social worker, I could probably sit here for hours and write paper after paper disputing how your vote did nothing good for POCs, veterans, women, the unemployed, or immigrants, but why bother writing a post with facts that you are too stubborn and unwilling to consume or read. Instead, I want to use this post to process something with you (and other Christians like you) that has been bothering me for a while now: “where do I (and other black and brown people) fit in your version of justice and Christianity?”

As your former black friend, I have spent the last few months watching people offer a variety of inhumane and shitty debates over the sanctity of black and brown lives, and I am tired... The consensus? Brown people deserve imprisonment in concentration camps and forced hysterectomies due to their unrelenting pursuit of freedom and the right to life. A wall deserves more justice than a black woman who was shot while lying peacefully in her bed. And my personal favorite, black men deserve to be publicly lynched by police officers due to their perceived “propensity to commit crime.” Despite the fact Oxygen, Lifetime, and so many other major tv networks make it a habit to create content that glorifies and normalizes white violence.

But I digress….

Today was the final straw. I read your post, and I was reminded of all the sadness and anger that I’ve been processing this year as I’ve tried to navigate being black, female, and Christian. To make matters worse, I saw many people we both know including my best friend’s mother cosign your bullshit and I was reminded of the many times I laughed and broke bread with you only to see you betray me in a way that you will never comprehend. Did all that time we spent together mean anything to you at all? Is this some of kind of sick joke? To be honest, I am tired of defending a faith that revels in the demise of people like me and elevates misguided people like you. I often find myself asking God why I’ve had to spend all of these long days and late nights working to challenge a church that is so hellbent on remaining aligned with racism and white supremacy.

And, to be even more honest, I don’t know how much longer I can do this… The fact that the majority of you are unrepentant and try to hide it under the guise of piety and devotion to God is not only maddening, but it repels me from wanting to have any kind of association with you. Especially in your case, Mr. Boriqua. After scrolling through your social media and seeing you brag about voting for an administration that openly endorses the destruction of both my race and identity, I cannot help but wonder if there is any hope for people like you. The truth is, I no longer have a desire to find out or keep on trying. I learned years ago that it is useless to throw my pearls to swine, and at this point, I’ve got no choice but to put my frustrations with you in God’s hands even if He doesn’t do a damn thing with it.

Needless to say, today, tonight, this week, and probably the rest of this year is going to be hard for me because people like you cosigned a man and ideology that will potentially hurt me and the people that I know and love (including some of our mutual friends). Today, I am not sure if I will ever be able to forgive you for that… but in the meantime, I’m gonna do me. I am going to do my best to rest up and figure things out with God so that I can have the strength and willingness to continue this fight for those whom your precious administration deems unworthy of love, justice, and care (i.e. black people, women, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, DACA recipients, etc.).

In the end, you may have been able to separate his character from his policies, but as a mutual friend of ours pointed out, many people saw Trump as a green light to live out their hate and that should have been reason enough for you to shut up, listen to peoples’ personal experiences, and vote differently. Too bad you learned nothing about listening to others from all those years in ministry…

Anyway, have a good life, Mr. Boriqua. I sincerely hope that you eventually learn from your actions and change how you view faith and politics. Despite popular belief, country, party and misguided religious affiliations should never take precedent over the sanctity of life. And, maybe if you spent less time watching YouTube videos and more time consuming peer-reviewed resources you would see that many of your reasons for voting contradicted each other. For example, “you cannot vote to lessen poverty, crime, and drugs” or “vote for police and criminal justice reform” while also supporting an administration that profits from the private prison system (cc documentaries like 13th and When They See Us).