I told my therapist that a lot of the grieving with friends and bringing food to share has felt like sitting shiva. So my therapist told me that, as a Jewish woman (“I’m not sure if you knew I was Jewish-” “YEP I WAS PRETTY SURE YOU WERE”), she’s wearing all black for a week exactly because she feels like sitting shiva

71% of American Jews voted for Clinton, and while my brain hurts just thinking about the 24% who voted for Trump—a candidate riding on and welcoming the support of unabashed white supremacists, who see Jews as race polluters hell-bent on destroying Teh Whitez, or at best as “parasites"—this is such an important statistic to note. American Jews are disgusted and terrified by the thought of a Trump presidency.

I know it’s very edgy and en vogue to dismiss Jewish concerns as “hyperbolic” or “exaggerated,” because pervasive, latent antisemitism in most countries—INCLUDING VERY MUCH our own United States—tells people that Jews are, by nature, “people who whine too much.” And therefore it is easy to dismiss any claim of antisemitism or any worries Jews have. Antisemitism is self-perpetuating in this way. If you believe that Jews are, by default, dishonest or exaggerating claims of antisemitism, then you will have a hard time ceasing to be antisemitic.

But please try to apply the same principles of human decency and historical hindsight to us for a moment. When Jews are afraid, we are afraid of what might happen to us and also of how antisemitism functions as a kind of gateway drug to so many other kinds of racism and xenophobia. Where there is antisemitism, there are always other problems. Where antisemitism and the concerns of Jews do not get taken seriously, you end up with persistent, sticking xenophobia and persecution that can bubble back up over and over no matter how many Kumbayas are sung and how many people pat themselves on the backs for having a neighbor who is different from them. I am afraid, as a Jew (besides being a woman and a queer person) because Trump’s election validates and mainstreams what Americans like to think of as “fringe” antisemitism on the right.

This is dangerous to Jews, and therefore it is dangerous to anyone who isn’t the right kind of straight white Christian. So stop telling women and POC and queer people and anyone who isn’t Christian to just “put aside your differences” and “learn to tolerate different opinions” and “work together” with a Trump presidency… and “don’t worry, he won’t REALLY be able to do all that stuff.” Because my people are the canaries in this coal mine, we have been for so long, and you need to take our advanced warnings seriously for once.