An open letter on the election

While teaching political science classes, I do my very best to remain as non-partisan as possible.
I never discuss my own political beliefs, and I don’t use my classes as a platform to convince students that they should share my ideology. But I will break my self-imposed silence and discuss my feelings about our president-elect, Donald Trump.
Like many of you, I fear the man and what he represents of our country. My feelings toward Mr. Trump are not based on partisan politics — frankly, I disagree with policies set forth by both Republicans and Democrats, and though I voted for Hillary Clinton, I have doubts about her also.
The reason that Mr. Trump troubles me as much as he does is because he’s used both direct slurs and implicit hate speech aimed at Muslims, Latinos, African Americans, and women, and this fact has not only disqualified him from being elected, it is in part why he was elected.
I am not stating here that every Trump voter is a racist because I don’t believe that to be true. What his candidacy has unleashed, however, in our political discourse is uglier and more cruel than anything that I’ve previously seen in American politics.
The truth is that I dislike Mr. Trump as much as I do is because I love you, my students, as much as I do (and I say this knowing that some of you supported his candidacy, and I respect that).
I think about you: the multicultural, multi-gender, pluralistic classes that I have the absolute honor to teach, and I just cannot abide by a person who openly aims hatred at you.
I know that many of you are filled with fear at what this election tells you about America. I’m especially concerned about those of you who are members of immigrant communities. What you should know is that despite this election, there are millions of us who are here to surround you with the support you deserve.

Scott Godfrey is a professor of Political Science at Laney College. E-mail him at sgodfrey(at)peralta.edu.