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Trump’s America rears its ugly, racist head

Reports of racist, xenophobic and homophobic attacks are rising on social media following Donald Trump's win

By on November 11, 2016

Donald Trump, Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr
Donald Trump – Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr

Donald Trump has been President-elect for three days now (it feels a lot longer, we know) and already we’re seeing the effects of his racist, xenophobic, sexist campaign.

Social media is rapidly filling with examples of Trump supporters reacting to his win — and it’s about as horrifying as you would imagine. In a Twitter Moments story, Insanul Ahmed has been collecting posts from women, minorities, Muslims, LGBT people and others, detailing the various ways they have been harassed and threatened since Trump’s stunning win on Tuesday.

“Day 1 in Trump’s America” makes for punishing viewing, but we feel it’s necessary to highlight just how quickly the anger and bile Trump helped to incite has begun to overflow into society at large. While we hope President-elect Trump will condemn such attacks — until he does it’s minority groups who will continue to suffer.

Ahmed told Rolling Stone that he “wanted to highlight that these are not isolated incidents in red states — they’re happening all over the country. People want to think racists are only uneducated, old white men living in the South. They’re not. They are your neighbors.”

We’ve excerpted a few examples below and share these stories with you not to be provocative. This isn’t clickbait — it’s real life. It’s happening now. Americans, whether through birth or through immigration, are being threatened and harassed, all because our President-elect built a political brand on the backs of racism and xenophobia. We urge everyone to watch the full Moment, embedded at the bottom of this article.

Unsurprisingly, people of color are bearing the brunt of attacks following Trump’s election.

Twitter user Chris Weatherd shared a video, showing vile, racist graffiti on his car.

Muslim women are afraid to wear the hijab, for fear of attack.

One woman reported being threatened with rape, with the man telling her she would be sent “back over the biggest damn wall we’re going to build.”

Sexism, which was a central theme of Trump’s campaign, has apparently been legitimized. For women across the country, Trump’s election was proof that men can do anything — even brag about sexual assault — and not face consequences.

Students are reporting a rise in attacks, both verbal and physical, after Trump’s win.

Just look at the language in that last tweet. It’s sickening. This is what Trump’s win has provoked.

And if LGBT people thought they might escape the abuse being directed at other minority groups — Trump, after all, said he would be a friend to the community — that dream has been quickly shattered.

And if we thought children would escape backlash, think again.

We don’t know what the future will hold, whether Trump can control those who helped put him in office, or whether fear of violence, of hateful language, of discrimination will become the norm once again for so many in America.

All we can say is that, if the first day after Trump’s election is a reflection of what the next four years will be like, it is now more important than ever to stand up and fight for the values, the rights, the hopes and the dreams that we all hold dear. If that means protesting, then get out and protest. If that means volunteering to help others, then sign up to volunteer. If that means starting the movements now to ensure Democrats sweep the 2018 midterms, then we’d all better get off our asses and start working.

A Trump presidency isn’t a pipe dream any more, it’s a reality. Let’s make sure that the hatred and divisiveness it has incited isn’t our future.

Watch the rest of the Twitter Moments story below:

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