What started as laughable and incredulous has become reality: Donald Trump is now our president-elect.

No one seems to be laughing now. Many people seem to be in a state of dismay and disbelief. It appears many people drank the Kool-Aid of the mainstream media polls and felt as though former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would coast into the White House with ease.

However, her defeat should not be a surprise. We must remember there is still an undercurrent of racism in this country. I am not just speaking of those who said they weren’t going to vote for Mr. Trump, yet knew they would. I am also speaking of those who may not have supported him, but still have their own hidden bigotry.

There was a large contingent of people who didn’t support Mrs. Clinton because she is a woman.

Some men have the archaic mentality that women are good to look at but they do not want to be “ruled” by any woman. Additionally, some African-American women harbor a vehement resentment against Caucasian women. For both groups, they would still rather see a President-elect Trump because he represents the norm. For them, it’s normal to go to work and see a Caucasian male in a position of power. For them, it’s normal that men make up the majority of pastorates and other positions of power in the church. Electing Mr. Trump is going back to what they feel is a sense of normalcy. In their eyes, his slogan was really “Make America Normal Again.”

This election is proof that some of us want to remain in our closet of bigotry and division. We only “unashamedly” emerge and display this bigoted side when it seems to be in our best interest, and then we retreat back to our closet.

The question now becomes “Where do we go from here?” The country has a huge sensitive scab now that can become infected at any moment.

To President-elect Trump: Now that you have won, how will you respond? Will you remember those who came out of the shadows to vote for your victory, or will you really seek to make America great for all?

Those who voted for you, or chose you as the lesser of two evils, are going to hold you to a higher standard than those who did not support you. Those who voted for you now want you to make good on the promises.

For those who didn’t support President-elect Trump, this is not the time to wallow in sadness or defeat. The votes have been tallied and this country must live with the results as was expected of others had Mrs. Clinton won.

Will you sit in self-pity and apathy? With a majority of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate belonging to the same political party as the president-elect, will you now begin to galvanize and actually see the importance of making your voice heard during every election and not just once every four years?

There’s so much good that can come out of this. The question is are we all going to work together for the betterment of this country or will we allow this to further divide us, opening a wound whose infection could consume us all?

The writer is pastor of Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in Doswell.