It was a fair and democratic presidential election. It’s time to move on, forget the gloating coming from friends and family members who voted for him, move our attention away from one man’s personality to the American populace who elected him and ask why? Among the several reasons, insidious, ever present, racism was a cause, if not a decisive factor.
The day after the election, the New Paltz campus police notified the college community that black students were receiving hateful racist messages. It was soon reported that messages were being sent all over the country, including to middle school students. “You will become slaves again. You will be picked up in an unmarked brown van.” A message sent to a father stated, “Your daughter has been selected to become a slave at your nearest plantation.”
Whoever sent these messages had their own interpretation of what it “means to make America great again.” In 1970, only 12 percent of the US population was non-white. In 2024, that number jumped to 42% and is rapidly rising. Some white people of European descent are frightened. Soon America will have a majority of brown and black people.
Even here in liberal New Paltz, an incident occurred years ago revealing when the population of black people gets above a certain percentage beyond what Caucasians find comfortable, the whites become anxious.
Thirty years ago I was teaching a dance class in The Dancing Theater above Handmade when my student, Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis said, “As soon as there are too many black attendees, the white women in the class will quit.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I replied. One by one she brought new participants from her church in Poughkeepsie. Within several weeks, I was the only white person left.
Demographics have shifted here, also in every other town and city across the country. Even in New Jersey, a blue state, Kamala won by only five percentage points. There were many stealth Trump voters, who in the privacy of the voting booth might have cast their vote in the hope to return to an America predominantly European. When the US has a non-white majority, those who want America to turn back to a former incarnation should hope they treat us better than we have treated them.
Whatever conscious or unconscious apprehensions energized the vote choice, our anxieties about America and the world will not be diminished by any one president.
What can we do? Love is still the antidote to fear and hatred. We can practice kindness.
If everyone did that, it would make American great again.
The day after the election scams dramatically increased
“The FBI is warning the public about scammers exploiting the 2024 US general election to perpetrate multiple types of financial fraud schemes. These scams target victims across the United States.”
On the morning of November 6, I received a phone call from my “grandson.”
“This is Dante. Grandma, I am in jail. I made a big mistake and I am sorry (sobbing). I was driving my friend’s car to school. I went up a one-way street, hit another car. The police came. They know I don’t have a driver’s license. I am ok. I just broke my nose. But you have to help. I don’t want my mom to know yet. I had one call and I made it to you because that’s what I always do, tell you before anyone. Please Grandma, call this lawyer and help me. Please. The lawyer. Please call him right away. I’m so scared.”
The lawyer says, “Everything is going to be fine, Mrs. Slotnick. He had a sobriety test. It was negative. He has three charges pending: driving without a license, reckless endangerment, being on the cell phone while driving. Unfortunately, he hit a car with a pregnant women at the wheel. She’s ok. Just broke her wrist. Get a pencil and paper. If he gets bail, he can leave today. Write down these instructions.
Instructions
1. Go to your bank take out $8,000 in cash.
2. A court officer from the district where the accident happened will come to your house to collect the money.
I tell the “lawyer” I will not hand over any cash from my house. The New Paltz police will be here. Better still we will meet at the police station.
The lawyer said, “That’s fine. It’s the usual way this is done.” His words suspended momentarily, my growing disbelief.
I call Dante’s school. He is in class.
“Dante” calls me again sounding even more freaked out, but this time his voice is unintelligible. I hang up.
I call the police to report the scam.
“This is a scam targeting grandmothers, always from their grandsons. They research their intended victim through social media and in some cases are even able to hack private messages,” the police officer explains to me.
The day after the election it would not take more than a cursory search on Google to find out I might be vulnerable, unhappy, distracted by the result.
Over the following weekend, my grandson told me, “Nobody got hurt. The scammer didn’t win. You’re not out the $8,000.”
Dante provided me with a teachable moment.
“Neither did the persons who sent the racist messages to New Paltz college students win. They are here, free, safe and no squad came to pick them up in a brown van to turn them into slaves. Those messages did hurt the recipients who had to interface with the hatred towards them. The writer of those messages somehow believed the election emboldened them to allow their hatred to come into light of day.”
We are living in a time when what helps or hurts is often measured in financial loss or gain, as if that is the only yardstick for determining good and bad, harm or healing.
As we watch the moral infrastructure collapse, anger coming from all sides, insurance companies refusing to cover healthcare, people unable to get basic necessities due to surging prices, all we can do is be present, hope for humanity to self-correct. Soon.
Join the family! 
