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See How Trump's Merchandise Got a Black Lives Matter Makeover

It's a super fun way to confuse racists.

Bridget Todd is a digital political strategist and writer for outlets like The Atlantic and The Boston Review. And now she’s a game-changing hat model. Bridget went viral after attending the Trump inauguration while wearing a hat that read “Black Lives Matter,” rendered in the style of a “Make America Great Again” cap. 

Bridget’s friend Emma Tolkin designed the hat after she was harassed on Twitter by a woman in a MAGA hat. As Emma told Teen Vogue, “I’m a total troll so I photoshopped a Trump-style Black Lives Matter hat and offer[ed] it up as a Twitter avatar to confuse racists.” Bridget wanted to buy it, so Emma went to an apparel website and ordered two.

Bridget told Teen Vogue that she lives in a progressive area in Washington, D.C., so reactions near home generally consisted of people doing double takes and bursting into laughter. When she got to the inauguration, she received some definite negative reactions from Trump supporters (shocker). One family stopped her for a Twilight Zone-esque conversation. “The mother said she thought my hat was disrespectful,” she recounted to Teen Vogue. “When I asked her who I was disrespecting, she said it was disrespectful to act like Trump is a racist when he is 'good to Black people.' They told me that if I learned more about Trump, I would probably support him."

“The harassment of Black women shouldn't get you an invitation to the White House,” she continued. “Trump threw people of color under the bus to get elected. It wouldn’t be surprising to me if he continues to do so for the next four years.”

Bridget wants people who oppose Trump to take action. “I urge everyone who is feeling scared or overwhelmed to turn that feeling into something useful,” she told Teen Vogue. “Whether it’s volunteering at a local cause in your town or getting involved in an organization trying to make changes at the federal level, remember that you aren’t powerless and that you have the power the enact real change. I think Trump is counting on us forgetting a lot of what he ran on but I will never forget. I will always remember that he ran on a platform of racism, sexism, and xenophobia. The day Trump was elected, I made a promise to myself not to ever normalize his administration because the day his kind of hate becomes the norm, that’s the day he’s really won.”

I would personally like to print this statement on billboards around the country.

You can get in on the hat action too. It retails here for $40, and all proceeds benefit the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Black Lives Matter.

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