With the imminent inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump next week, it's impossible to know what will come of his presidency.
For now, at least, we can use our voices to speak up about what we do and don't want to happen to the US, its citizens and minority groups, following the businessman's relentless racist and derogatory comments during his presidential campaign.
Three women who are speaking up against Trump's racist rhetoric and their hopes for the future of the US are singer Katy Perry, filmmaker Aya Tanimura and Pakistani actress Hina Khan.
While Trump's misogynistic talk of 'pussy grabbing', building a wall to separate Mexico from the US, and his mocking of a disabled reporter are but a handful of offensive words uttered from the up-coming president, one of the more alarming themes of his campaign was his virulent anti-Muslim stance and worrying talk of a 'Muslim registry'.
According to The Independent, in 2015 Mr Trump said he would bring in systems that would track Muslims, after signing them up in various places across the US.
When questioned by an NBC reporter whether a country under his ruling would see Muslims enforced to register on this database, Trump replied: 'They have to be, they have to be.'
As a result, Katy Perry has funded and executive-produced a new Public Service Announcement (PSA) to show people the striking similarity between the captivity of Japanese-Americans during World War II and Trump's racist rhetoric.
It asks Trump and American citizens to consider whether history could be repeating itself, as many people fear the imprisonment of minority groups and ostracizing of society could become a reality under his presidency.
In the clip – directed by Aya Tanimura, a filmmaker of Japanese and Australian descent – a woman is seen sharing the story of Haru Kuromiya, a woman forced out of her home in Riverside, California with her family and moved to an internment camp, under the direct order of the US government.
A message at the beginning of the clip reads: 'In 1942, over 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated in internment camps across the US.'
In the video, Kuromiya says 'My entire family was put on a registry. Our constitutional rights were taken away from us.'
However, halfway through he clip, the woman on-screen starts to remove her prosthetics, to show Pakistani actress named Hina Khan, to highlight the parallels of the past to the current day.
'Trump has created an atmosphere of fear for Muslim Americans in the United States,' Tanimura told The Times.
She added: 'The accountability and responsibility for what you say and do now has been lifted so people feel a little freer to be racist, or act upon racism, because there are not necessarily consequences for it — it's just acceptable behavior. If laws are put in place to back that up, it will be pretty scary.'
Katy Perry is said to have funded the video and the cost of the prosthetics with a blank cheque, with Tanimura adding:
'Katy has always been a champion of the underdog, of minorities, of the people who are kind of left of center, and she's become more politically involved in the last few election cycles.'
A poignant lesson on why we should never allow society or any politician encourage the normalisation of hate.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
