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

I know that some of you listening will dismiss our fears as unfounded hysteria, or ratcheted-up sour grapes about the Nov. 5 election results. For us, the outcomes of what was described as a consequential election are much more dire than contentious disagreements about the direction of the country.

It’s about policies that threaten our lives and livelihoods. Policies that make people feel they are not safe.

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

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

That has translated into emboldening those supporters and others to commit random acts of harassment.

Friends shared verified post-election stories, like the one from my sister in Tennessee, whose friend was waiting at a stoplight the day after the election. A man she didn’t know waving at her from another car. She didn’t respond, and quickly realized he was following her. Panicked, she turned into a fast-food drive-thru. He pulled up next to her, rolled down the window, and screamed “N-word, you got any money?” He then laughed and drove off.

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

October’s New York Times/Sienna College poll revealed that 63% of Latino voters dismissed the inflammatory statements about immigration, especially, saying “I don’t feel like he’s talking about me.”

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

Then there’s Project 2025, which Trump tried to distance himself from, but many his closest advisors helped craft including border czar Homan. What happens when the extremist proposals in Project 2025 to eliminate or cut voting access and censor academic discussions or use federal law to discriminate against transgender people become policy?

I’m not gonna lie: I don’t understand the people who passionately told me they supported candidate Trump because he would preserve American values they believed must be restored. Candidate Trump, they said, was trying to make a point. He’s not really going to execute the extreme proposals he railed about ad nauseam. And besides, they said, even if he tried, there are systems to serve as a check. I didn’t get much response when I pointed out we — the people — are the system.

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

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

Amen.