Goodbye to the New York City "bubble"

I want to live and thrive in a diverse community.   That's one of the reasons I live in New York City.   Often, people comment that I'm in a "bubble" here--protected from the most overt forms of racism supposedly more common in most of the rest of the United States.

Leaving aside the fact that New York City has its own versions of racial problems, I'm glad to be part of the bubble and wouldn't consider moving back to any other part of the country as my home.   Montreal, perhaps.   Or Paris.   But never elsewhere in the States.

So I'm sad to report that the free-for-all released by the election of a pathological egotist by the part of our electorate he panders to has pierced the New York world--both in image and reality.   In the last two days:

• A Japanese theater acquaintance was called a "gook" as she walked down West 13th Street in the Village to her home.   She posted notes describing this pleasant exchange on Facebook.
• At the W 79th and Broadway FEDEX office yesterday, some nutcase got angry and told every one that "Fedex is going to get better because now they're going to fire all the minorities and Muslims."   I'm reporting how it was described to me--I'm not certain the word "minorities" was used.
• As reported in most of the media, another crackpot is now in jail for blowing up at JFK yesterday and telling a Delta ground staff woman (who was wearing a hajib) "Trump will send you home."   Apparently he then did an interpretive reenactment of how Muslims pray, to emphasize his point.   This wasn't a New Yorker--I believe it was just a miserable sack of shit flying home from an Aruba vacation.   But still.   It happened in the five boroughs, and at a location where, because of exposure to international travel, you'd hope for better.

The bubble is gone, man.   I'm sure any one who reads this can add to my list.   And if it's changing here, imagine what it's like in the diaspora...our poor, sick, country.