I’ve spent the days since Donald Trump became president-elect trying to quell fear — fear that I and others in so-called “vulnerable” communities share. This includes my fellow African, Latino, and Asian, transgender, gay, and Muslim Americans. Of course, many of those groups are also women, doubly vulnerable.

I know some of you listening will dismiss our fears as unfounded hysteria or frozen sour grapes about the November 5th election results. For us, the results of what has been described as a consequential election are far more dire than contentious disagreements over the direction of the country.

These are policies that threaten our lives and livelihoods. Policies that make people feel unsafe.

These fears are not misplaced or overstated. We carry the history of our ancestors who survived the brutality of discrimination and political violence and fought for the legislative and societal protections that many Americans, including those outside our communities, embrace.

The reality is that we have reason to fear it for some time; we have been continuous targets for harassment since candidate Trump first ran for office. Then and recently, he has felt comfortable shouting angry, nasty, racist and sexist rhetoric. Rhetoric which — as researchers from
Britain’s University of Kent and Yale University reported last year — helped shape the prejudices of his supporters more than “supporters of other major US political figures.”

That translated into encouraging those advocates and others to do so
commits random acts of harassment.

Friends shared verified stories after the election, like the one from my sister in Tennessee, whose friend was waiting at a traffic light the day after the election. A man he didn’t know waving at him from another car. She didn’t answer and quickly realized he was following her. In a panic, he turned into a fast food drive-thru. He pulled up next to her, rolled down the window and yelled “N-word, do you have any money?” Then he laughed and left.

Recent election data reveals historic levels of voter support from people whose lived experiences mirror mine. But who, unlike me, managed to put aside the bullying and rejected the volatile rhetoric.

The October New York Times/Sienna College poll revealed that 63 percent of Latino voters rejected incendiary statements about immigration in particular, saying “I don’t feel like he’s talking about me.”

I wonder if they also reject his words
newly announced border czar Tom Homan. In an interview before the election, Homan told “60 Minutes” that the way to carry out mass deportation without separating families was:
“Families can be deported together.” This would include mixed citizen and undocumented families.

Then there’s Project 2025, which Trump has tried to distance himself from but many of his closest advisers helped create, including border czar Homan. What happens when Project 2025’s extremist proposals to eliminate or reduce voting access and censor academic discussion or use federal law to discriminate against transgender people become political?

I’m not going to lie: I don’t understand the people who passionately told me they supported candidate Trump because he would preserve the American values ​​they believed needed to be restored. Candidate Trump, they said, was trying to make a point. He is not indeed going to carry out the extreme propositions that he has beaten into insanity. And besides, they said, even if he tried, there are systems in place to serve as a check. I didn’t get many responses when I pointed out that we – the people – are the system.

President-elect Donald Trump’s landslide victory and Republican takeover of both houses of Congress is a mandate for his agenda. But I keep asking myself in my feedback loop of resignation and despair: How do I prepare for the inevitable pain?

In the hours after reality sank in, writer Cole Arthur Riley’s prayers, poems and meditations went viral. And I became one of the multitudes who saw our fears articulated
when he posted on Instagram: “Just because you’ve prepared for the worst doesn’t make it any less terrifying when it comes.”

Amen.