“Stop it,†Donald Trump commanded in his recent 60 Minutes interview. This was the President-elect’s lukewarm response to racist and violent outbursts in the U.S. As the next president, he’s obliged to denounce such acts. However, he fuelled his campaign with hateful rants.
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Black, Hispanic, Muslim-Americans, and women alike, find themselves in a new and distorted U.S. In it, bigots are emboldened by Trump’s wall-building, bullying, misogynistic mentality. Anti-Semitic graffiti appears in San Diego. A Muslim student in Michigan is forced to remove her hijab — or risk being set on fire. In North Carolina, the Ku Klux Klan plans a victory parade.
In a few short months, Trump turned back decades of social progress. For some, he normalized racism. Trump didn’t simply materialize this hatred, though. He identified an undercurrent of fear and twisted it for his own gain.
Early in his campaign, Trump said the following about Syrian refugees: “We have no idea who these people are, where they come from.†He gave tacit permission for Americans to be fearful of newcomers — and activated their imaginations.
Let’s take pride in our efforts and expand them, in defiance of fearful rhetoric.
