Opinion: America is meant to protect us. Trump’s win proves otherwise.

We shall overcome someday, but not now.
Now, I feel hopeless and abandoned by the people, the very system that has promised to protect me and never leave me behind.
President-elect Donald Trump’s election win proves what we already knew: America is not ready to challenge the status quo and force a reckoning with its deeply rooted divisive beliefs.
Like other Americans, I have a spirit of enduring hope − a hope that one day justice will prevail and unity will silence division.
Yet, lately, that hope feels distant. Trump’s win is as a painful reminder of our nation’s struggle to confront its own shortcomings. We are entrenched in ideologies that for some evoke feelings of superiority or greatness and in others cause depression, but ultimately they harm our unity as a nation.
Growing up as an impoverished and abused Black girl, who lost her parents, I always thought that one day someone would come to save me. No one ever did. I was abandoned by a system built to protect children like me.
But even as I grew older, I held firm to a belief that America was inherently good and fair, and that I just so happened to be dealt a bad hand. I no longer believe this.
America was supposed to be a place of refuge for those in need. Immigrants left England to come here for religious freedom and economic advancement ‒ and to escape political oppression.
Now we exude the same ideals that people once sought reprieve from. America is cloaked in the shadows of an idea never realized: unity, inclusivity and equality.
Opinion:Trump wins 2024 election. America needs to admit it’s not ‘better than this.’
The second election of Trump is yet another bitter realization that the voices of the marginalized, disenfranchised and hopeful dreamers will continue to be muted by staunch resistance to change.
I know America’s journey toward justice and unity has always been fraught with challenges, and we have made progress. But it seems like for every step forward there has been a forceful pullback, reminding us that equality and inclusion will not be given freely.
Opinion poll:Trump wins 2024 election. What comes next? You tell us.
Today, I am tired of fighting. As a Black woman in America, this fight is overwhelming and never-ending.
I have fought with hope and faith against a reality that refuses to bend. Are we really ready to confront the uncomfortable truths of our past? Do we really want to dismantle systems that have marginalized so many?
Because at this moment, Trump’s victory feels like an endorsement of the status quo, an unwillingness to acknowledge and address the disparities woven into our nation’s fabric.
There is a lesson here for all of us. Despair has always been a companion to social change. The American Revolution, women’s suffrage and the Civil Rights Movement all happened because equality and inclusivity were withheld from a people.
These events are reminders of what is at stake − freedom.
Even though today I feel abandoned, I will not be silent. I will not be defeated. America’s progress may be slow, and the road ahead may be steep, but I will continue to advocate for marginalized communities because I know that one day – though not today – we shall overcome.
And when that day arrives, our voices will be stronger for having endured these moments of heartache and exclusion.
Marla Bautista is a military fellow columnist at USA TODAY Opinion.