Access Jennifer Lawrence is speaking out in the wake of Donald Trump’s historic presidential election win, calling his victory proof that sexism and racism is still America’s “stark reality.”
“Is this the stark reality?” Lawrence wrote in a letter published by VICE’s feminist site Broadly. “It doesn’t matter how hard you work or how qualified you are, at the end of the day, you’re not a man? Is that what we just learned? This country was founded on immigration and today the only people that feel safe, that their rights are recognized and respected are white men.”
The 26-year-old Oscar-winning actress said Hillary Clinton supporters need to start planning for the future because “we cannot change the past.”
“I want to be positive; I want to support our democracy, but what can we take away from this? It’s a genuine question that we all need to ask ourselves,” she wrote. “We shouldn’t blame anyone, we shouldn’t riot in the streets. We should think strongly and clearly about what to do next because we cannot change the past.”
The X-Men: Apocalypse star offers her fans advice on how to combat climate change, economic morass, and racial violence.
“If you’re worried about the health of our planet, find out everything you can about how to protect it,” she wrote. “If you’re worried about racial violence love your neighbor more than you’ve ever tried to before—no matter what they believe or who they voted for. If you’re afraid of a wall putting us all into another recession then organize and stand against it.”
Lawrence says she doesn’t have solutions “if you’re a woman and you’re worried that no matter how hard you work or how much you learn,” noting that “there will always be a glass ceiling.”
“I don’t know what I would tell my daughter if I were you. Except to have hope. To work for the future,” she continued. “We’re all allowed to be sad that the present isn’t what we thought it was. But we must’nt be defeated.
Lawrence, recently named the highest-paid actress in Hollywood for the second straight year, said women should “keep educating ourselves and working twice as hard as the man next to us because we know now that it is not fair. It is not fair in the workplace, so you make it impossible to fail.”
“And like Hillary Clinton, it might not work.”
“But like Hillary, you can still be an inspiration and get important things done,” Lawrence wrote. “Do not let this defeat you—let this enrage you! Let it motivate you! Let this be the fire you didn’t have before. If you are an immigrant, if you are a person of color, if you are LGBTQ+, if you are a woman—don’t be afraid, be loud!”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @jeromeehudson
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