You Should Probably Stop Laughing

Donald Trump is running for president. Donald Trump is succeeding. If you’re someone who plans on voting for Donald Trump in the primaries or in the general election, I’m not going to reach you. I can’t, because you’re miles away. The people I might be able to reach, however, are those on the fringes — the people who senselessly and carelessly argue that a monster sitting in the Oval Office makes sense because that person is “funny” or “entertaining.” Not only is that ridiculous, but it’s also untrue.

It’s a dismissive argument that I and hundreds of others struggle to wrap our heads around on a daily basis. Why is entertainment a quality that one should look for in a presidential candidate? Why should the American people ditch foresight for a temporary laugh? What does a blatant disregard for human rights say about voters?

While I don’t have answers for any of those questions, here’s what I do know. I know that Donald Trump is not funny.  He doesn’t “tell it like it is,” unless he’s telling it to bigots. His rhetoric is not just unpleasant. It’s dangerous. It’s dangerous for thousands of U.S. citizens who aren’t invited to the hegemonic party of people who can laugh casually with Donald Trump at someone else’s expense from a safe distance.

So let me ask those of you who are entertained by Trump’s sentiments a few questions. Are you a woman? Then you should probably stop laughing. Do you make less than $100,000 a year? Then you should probably stop laughing. Do you tend to disagree with fascism as an institution? Then you should probably stop laughing. People of color aren’t laughing. Women who rely on Planned Parenthood services for reliable healthcare aren’t laughing. Muslim Americans aren’t laughing. Immigrants seeking asylum aren’t laughing.

But the prison industrial complex certainly is. Fear is. Hatred is. Privilege is. Xenophobia’s reaction to Donald Trump’s campaign has been absolutely uproarious.

But here’s the thing. Underprivileged people do not have the luxury of laughing at abstractions. The Trump jokes on which you happily cosign are someone else’s lived experience. Your punchline is someone else’s reality. Instead of stringing threads of commonality across chasms, you’re content with someone pushing those who are already silenced down into them. It’s less messy that way. Voting for Trump lets you maintain your shortsighted worldview. Voting for Trump lets your wrap yourself up in the status quo while everyone else freezes.

The White House should not be where bigotry hangs its hat. If my only choice is to be a xenophobe or a stick in the mud, I’ll gladly hit the dirt.

Virtual Reality: New Shop Fronts Give Faces to Digital Names

Shopfront: The F Store, Old Street Station London, will remain open from 23 September 2014 to 23 November 2014 (Image via JustOpenedLondon.com)

Is the shopfront dead? With online sales on the rise, innovative retailers aim to bridge the gap between store space and online convenience. 

As of now, you can do almost anything online. You can schedule an appointment with your hair stylist, pay your credit card bills, or book a flight. You can lock your flat via app when you forget. Most importantly, though, you can shop for anything under the sun from leather joggers to tonight’s dinner.

But maybe the shopfront isn’t dead after all: enter The F Store and Pro Direct. These experimental London pop-ups bridge the growing gap between the online and storefront experience. The F Store, which sprung up in Old Street Station on  23 September 2014 to attract attention from London’s Shoreditch crowd, is the brainchild of high street heavyweight French Connection. Here’s how it works. Although you can always pop by the storefront, shoppers can also buy online during their lunch break and pick up in store on their way home from work, revealing the genius that is their underground station setup.

Inside Pro-Direct, Floubert’s Place, London (Image via RetailDesignBlog.net)

Pro Direct, on the other hand, is a football centric shop that takes a similar approach, offering a dazzling physical space lit up by digital displays. Just Opened London explains, “Pro Direct have unified their space digitally, meaning you can browse stock via touch screen podiums, and watch as your favourite garb parades around in front of you on digital mannequins.” The store may very well find success in the digital community based on wow-factor alone.

And as it turns out, it’s all happening just in time. E-commerce studies predict that online sales will increase by about two thirds come 2015. On an even crazier note, the same study suggests that the percentage of UK retail via mobile will more than double at the same time. That being said, 90% of all retail commerce in the UK still happens in-store. So what does all this mean for the contemporary shopper?

Although early in the process, projects like this may be just the right recipe for 2014’s busy, mobile obsessed, tech savvy shopper. You know, the ones consumed by getting the best that style has to offer at the touch of a button. But maybe there’s still something to be said about parading a fabulous outfit around Oxford Street for a day of shopping done the old fashioned way. In any case, wiith pop-ups like this, shoppers get the best of both worlds.

 

Malala Yousafzai: Youngest Nobel Prize Recipient in Any Category

“I’m proud that I’m the first Pakistani and the first young woman or the first young person getting this award.” – Malala Yousafzai (Image by Antonio Olmos for Parade Magazine)

“Taliban Gun Down Girl Who Spoke Up for Rights,” “Malala – The Girl Who was Shot for Going to School.” Now she is Malala Yousafzai – the girl who helps keep children around the world in school, the girl who woke the sleeping world up to the Taliban’s indelible reach. And as of 10 October 2014, she is the youngest ever recipient of a Nobel Prize in any category.

In early October 2012, Malala Yousafzai was gunned down by Taliban forces for one seemingly simple request: that she, as a young woman, be allowed to attend school just like her brothers. She told the Daily Mail that that morning, “My mother made me breakfast and I went off to school. I was afraid going to school because the Taliban had issued an edict banning all girls from attending schools.”

She went anyway. When she got on the bus that day, a masked Taliban gunman fired a shot that went through her shoulder, neck and head, just narrowly missing her brain. Millions of young women  face similar hardship, but the second that shot was fired, that plight gained a face and name. While the Taliban fired that shot to silence these girls, the end result was quite the opposite. Finally the struggle gained the mainstream recognition it needed and deserved. With intensive medical care, Malala pulled through to keep the conversation going.

For a woman of only seventeen years, her wisdom is almost incomprehensible. In fact, her father admits that he’s deferred to her since she was only ten years old about the state of his schools. He says, “When she was very small I used to say to her, ‘tell me Malala, how is the school going?’ And she’d say ‘it is so-so, you should change this and this…’ I trusted her wisdom even when she was a small child.” And now, seven years later, she’s adamant that, “When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” That voice comes from an atypical seventeen year old mouth.

It seems as though the Nobel Peace Prize is the only prize worthy of such activism by someone who is young enough to sit comfortably in apathy. Almost exactly two years to the day of 9 October 2012, that prize became hers.

Despite frequent allegations that the whole of Generation Y is a source of apathy and ignorance, Malala speaks. She acts. This time of honor is a testament to Malala’s continued efforts to change the face of education for women and children around the world. American student Priyanka Buledi, 21, of Pakistani descent explains that, “Malala is a reminder to us all, and especially to me as a Pakistani woman, that not everyone has access to the luxury of education, even now in 2014. I think sometimes we remove ourselves from the struggles of far away nations.” Malala doesn’t give us that option. Her struggle is ours. “Education,” she says, “is neither eastern nor western. Education is education and it’s the right of every human being.”

She is now honored as someone who is afraid of no one. She is honored as someone who’s still willing to stand up, even when it’s easier to remain seated.

Watch the Nobel Prize winner’s speech below.