There have been hundreds of incidents of hate, racism, intimidation and violence reported across the country since Donald Trump’s election as president.
Latino middle school students in Michigan were taunted with chants of “build a wall.” Here in Louisville, a family came home to find an unsigned letter in their mailbox using a racial slur to suggest black people are not welcome in that neighborhood.
Along with appeals to economic anxieties of working class voters, Trump’s campaign used rhetoric that has apparently inspired a wave of incidents against African-Americans, Muslims, women and Latinos. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there have been more than 300 hate incidents reported since November 8.
WFPL’s Stephen George spoke with Ricky Jones, who chairs the University of Louisville’s Pan-African Studies Department, about the factors that created a space for hateful rhetoric and the acts that have followed, and how the media and other institutions are grappling with it.
