Trump has essentially created a perfect outlet for racism to proliferate. As President it is undeniable that he had a lot of attention directed at him, and he certainly generated plenty of media attention around his racist comments. This only allowed supporters to become more vocal, and believe that they had a certain sense of security and whatever they said was in the right. He practically gave implicit permission to display acts of racism. A friend pointed out that this was especially made worse by his presence on social media, which easily amplified his racist rhetoric. Not only that, but really never really denounced acts of racism and at times offered thinly veiled support for it.

I think it is so interesting at this point in time how many people support Trump. I want to start off by saying I am not fully educated in politics and am open to learning a lot more. But the first thing I would like to mention is how I feel as if I am not even safe to state my own opinions about politics because people get so heated and angry if you don’t have the same beliefs as them. As being a minority who has grown up in an entire white, christian, conservative family, it is really hard for me to identify my place in politics. I think Trump has created such hatred for minorities and there’s this new unexplainable tension that I believe has been brought up since he became president. In the past four years, I was called the entire N word three times by students at a very popular Catholic High school. I think the way Trump is speaking out about immigration and the status of minorities is what is making people who are secretly racist feel as if they have a right to now speak out about it publicly. People aren’t as afraid to be racist, or say derogatory comments towards people because of the example that is set upon them by the President of the United States. I just personally think Trump should have discussed these extremely sensitive topics in a different manner that didn’t cause a major divide in the entire country of whose opinion is the right one.

I realize this post is from about a year ago, but I found it interesting how relevant it still is today. Every time I turn on the news, it seems that yet another white person has called the cops on an innocent African American doing no harm. These videos have gone viral and the world has watched everyone from Barbecue Becky call the cops on an African American family having a picnic at the park to Permit Patty phoning the police because an 8 year old African American girl was selling water bottles to save up money to go to Disneyland. These are just two examples of the many recent situations in which overt racism has been seen by the world through videos. I do not believe that it’s over in any way, nor is this a new wave of racism that has hit our country. Racism is in the roots of this country; the very foundation of how the settlers took over this land was built on the belief that they were better than the indigenous people’s whose home they stole. There has never been a time that racism did not exist. Whether it may seem that people have changed their ways, this administration’s election into office is clear proof that it’s not the case. Furthermore, the tolerance of Trump’s Islamophobia, white supremacy, and xenophobia can be seen in the countless decisions he’s made including banning transpeople from the military, the travel ban, calling other countries “shitholes,” and locking children in cages. The fact that he is still in office proves that a large population of American citizens condone this behavior. Ever since his election, hate crimes have skyrocketed. I remember reading about an Indian man who was shot in a bar after being told to go back to his country, being mistaken for a Muslim person. The tragedy of Charlottesville still gives me goosebumps that such a thing could occur in this supposedly new age. Of course, all of these racist folks existed before, but now they are seeing our president give them approval to act on it. If any silver lining in such a situation, it would be that at least now, all those people who claimed racism was dead during the Obama administration now have no argument left. We are finally forced to confront the ugliness of our country.

I learned something new unless it’s false, you probably know better or can clarify if it’s true or not or fear mongering from Fox news. But I found the violence from the nationalists and nazis and that group repulsive. And the murder horrible that happened where 2 cops and a girl died from being driven through. So I definitely do think the actions and what such people represent is worse and the confederate flag represents racism. I learned though that this was not simply taking down confederate flags, but liberals apparently wanting and going through to take down historical statues all across the southern states or US? If that’s the case as far as the statues, that’s not right. They are still part of history whether people like it or not. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, should we take statues down of them anywhere in the US too?