In this article, the authors explore what it means to be critical qualitative researchers before, during, and after the 2016 US presidential campaign and election. They reflect on their positionality as scholars of color and second-generation immigrants with commitments to marginalized communities, but also with concerns for their own everyday lives, as well as those of their families, friends, and communities. Drawing from two critical ethnographic studies, they discuss ways they had to step up to support students and ways they had to step back to take care of themselves. They suggest that during these troubling times, educational institutions and scholars have a greater responsibility to acknowledge the daily pain and fear felt by marginalized communities, and also to work with those communities in their struggles for justice and liberation.