I've experienced a new level of racism since Donald Trump went after Latinos

[KamaAina]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/09/donald-trump-racism-increase-latinos

Donald Trump’s hate speech against Latinos seems to be emboldening white Americans’ racism. For many, it may be hard to wrap their minds around the fact that that a reality TV star and failed businessman who characterized Mexican immigrants as the “most unwanted people,” calling them “criminals, drug dealers,” and “rapists”, was not only running for president, but is now polling well....

A couple of weeks ago, while I was running errands in my neighborhood, a stranger asked me if I was “illegal”. Around 10 minutes earlier another stranger asked me if I spoke English. Both were white and one of them even called me “senorita.” Then, late last week, I was standing in line to use the ATM when a white man approached me cautiously, asking if I spoke English. He was lost and said he didn’t want to be in a “bad area” longer than he needed to. He was holding a King Taco cup in his hand. I’ve seen white guys like him at the neighborhood taco spot. Stay for the tacos, leave before you have to interact with Mexicans who aren’t serving you.

This is the world Trump wants when he says he’s going to “make America great again.” It’s the America of 1950s TV shows, where people of color don’t exist in the lives of white Americans unless they’re being served or entertained by them. This appears to be a world longed for by many, as a recent poll found that 47% of white Americans look upon Trump “favorably.”

I’ve lived in Los Angeles for 29 of my 30 years. As a light-skinned, biracial Latina in one of the most diverse and Mexican-centric cities in the nation, I have never been asked the type of questions I’m now fielding from white people. I’m not the only one experiencing an uptick in seemingly out-of-the-blue racist exchanges. Latina journalist Aura Bogado recently tweeted about a strange interaction at a grocery store. My father recently told me a white neighbor he’s been friendly with since moving into the neighborhood 15 years ago, casually inquired about his citizenship status. As the days go on, I hear more of these kinds of stories from Latino friends and family members.

[randys1]

1. He has excited the buffoons I regularly deal with on the nets.

I mean what we know is we evolve forward, not backward.

Future humans will NOT be racist and homophobic, etc.

Will NOT have guns, will NOT base their existence in greed.

How we know this is a future like that is no future, it is chaos and death.

So eventually the bigots and the asses disappear, but that will take a long time.

[jwirr]

12. You have more hope than I do. Hope you are right.

[HassleCat]

2. You're all illegal!

Come on, admit it. You only lived in LA 29 or your 30 years, so that means you must be... um... an anchor baby! Wait... no... anchor babies are Chinese. Well, you must be something. What are you hiding?

[Mass]

3. I am unfortunately not surprised.

This is why I refuse to acknowledge his views on the economy (assuming they may even be legit, something I am not even sure).

The worse is that, with somebody like Trump, it is hard to know if he is a racist or if he is pushing a repugnant argument in order to get more power.

[7962]

21. You're right; some of his views on the economy are more Democratic than Hillarys.

Funny thing is, none of the GOP candidates will call him on it and his supporters are always the "free market" types who NOW support a guy who ISNT!!

[qwlauren35]

4. Wow.

Very sorry to hear that you are experiencing this. I've heard that it's much worse in Arizona.

[KamaAina]

5. I am not the author.

I am a white male living in San Jose.

[Skittles]

6. Reagan made greed and idiocy fashionable

Trump makes racism fashionable

[awoke_in_2003]

16. Yep, at least Reagan...

had an amnesty plan

[SoapBox]

7. He's drawing the TeaBagger Hate crowd.

[tclambert]

8. Wasn't Trump's grandfather, Friedrich Drumpf, an illegal immigrant?

[mountain grammy]

9. This is disturbing on so many levels.

Form the article:

When media fails to call Trump’s “rants” what they truly are – hate speech – we move toward normalizing his racism and xenophobia, which emboldens others to behave similarly. As long as Trump has a platform and a microphone, people of color will be put in harm’s way. That can take the form of the type of racist interactions I’m experiencing – or violence.

When white brothers, Scott and Steve Leader, beat and urinated on a 58-year-old homeless Mexican man last month, they cited Trump as the reason why they did it. “Trump was right” about “deporting all these illegals”, they said. Trump responded by saying he would never “condone violence.” But when will Trump take responsibility for breeding hatred? And when will society – and the media – call Trump exactly what he is: a racist?

Trump is the butt of every joke, a comedian's wet dream. Things can turn on a dime. Things like the freedom to mock our leaders. Big joke, haha, big Trump joke. Funny like Hitler.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. What? But I have been told here

that this is not a real thing.

Sorry... I am getting a whole dose of the

[Fred Sanders]

11. Free speech hatred has consequences....there is a reason every other Western nation has robust anti-hate speech laws.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. There are guys building ammo dumps in their homes for the upcoming race war....

They're looking forward to the "go" order to start killing all non-whites on sight.

[dorkzilla]

19. Unfortunately I heard this today from a close relative.

As a pasty white 50 year old broad who grew up watching the diversity on Sesame Street, watching all sorts of what i know now was ground breaking television highlighting the idiocy of bigots (i.e. All In The Family), spending my early years in a very diverse section of New York City, having plenty of bi-racial friends and many bi-racial couples as intimates, its upsetting to me that we’ve come, seemingly full-circle, to this point. I’m really starting to hate white people.

The close relative is a former LEO and an adherent of InfoWars, and every time we talk all I keep thinking is that we need to find a way to limit the dissemination of blatant non-truths to the public. Surely there must be a way to do this?

I remember my enlightened immigrant Irish Catholic great Auntie telling me hopefully when I was a child “well love, they elected an Irish Catholic as President, so hopefully equality for all is not far behind. Then again, they murdered the Irish Catholic President too, so maybe I’m wrong.” I always remembered that as a “glass is half full” statement (I was probably 8 when she said that) but I’m starting to believe that some people’s basic “tribalism” is egging them on.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. Keep in mind the Nativists used to hate the Irish....

Watch "Gangs of New York" some time.

[dorkzilla]

23. Oh I’m fully aware!

And my “donkeys” came over in the 1950’s...it was bad then too.

...they still hate the Irish Catholics btw.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

25. I know some Latinos that had ancestors that voted for California statehood in 1849....

By rights the United States should be like Canada. English and Spanish just like they have English and French.

[jtuck004]

14. Well, yeah. Wait until his nightriders start showing up, you think it's tough now.

He, they want all those non-white skin bad DNA people out of here, and if he has to create legions of bullies who hide in the shadows, he will.

Doesn't have to win an election to do that. This is just giving him cover to spread his hate around a little, let other people think their hate is ok.

[world wide wally]

15. Truly scary.

I have never liked Trump, but I always thought of him as a rich clown who. Could take a joke. I am beginning to think I was horribly wrong and I see him for the hate monger he is now. The sooner he is out of the news, the better!

[awoke_in_2003]

17. Been married to a Mexican American woman

for 22 years. The hatred is definitely ramping up.

[Cheese Sandwich]

18. I definitely see it increasing too. Trump + also backlash from the confederate flag wars

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. I heard some "good ol' boy" racist say, "They're trying to exterminate us!"....

No.

We did that in 1864.

[AuntPatsy]

20. Which begs the question how my son in law endorses this nimrod, his kids, my grandchildren

after hearing me explain him not so much....

[DLnyc]

26. In some countries, hate speech is illegal.

If it were here, Donald Chump would be doing time.