Make America Hate Again: The Trump Effect (part 1 of 2)

Retraction*

"A former reserve sheriff’s deputy is facing hate crime charges after telling Louisiana authorities that he plowed his pickup truck into a convenience store because he thought its Sikh owners were Muslim."*[1]This is by no means an isolated indecent as both major hate group watchers (FBI and Southern Poverty law Center) say hate is rising again, 

New rising climate of hate

There were more than 6,100 reported incidents of hate crimes in 2016, up from more than 5,800 the year before, the FBI said in a report based on data submitted by law enforcement agencies across the country. The number of hate crimes increased for a second consecutive year, and as was the case in 2015, the largest share of victims last year — nearly 6 in 10 — were targeted because of bias against the victim’s race or ethnicity...Studies have shown increasing discrimination against Muslims in the United States. Jewish schools and institutions have been repeatedly shuttered by threats. Cities have struggled with how to handle white-supremacist groups seeking to hold rallies, and gay rights activists have decried what they describe as the Trump administration’s “all out assault on LGBTQ people, women, and other minority communities.” The number of American hate groups also has increased, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.[2]

While the Southern Poverty Law Center "has documented 954 hate groups"  it correlates the spike with Trump's Tweets.[3]

The question is can these crimes be laid at Trump's door? It's not that cut and dried. There is a clear correlation, Incidents have been growing steadily for the last four years since Trump announced his campaign, In 2015 and 16, "There were more than 6,100 reported incidents of hate crimes in 2016, up from more than 5,800 the year before, the FBI said in a report based on data submitted by law enforcement agencies across the country. The number of hate crimes increased for a second consecutive year, and as was the case in 2015"[4]  These are mainly crimes against  religion and ethnicity, they mark the years since Trump's famous anti immigrant announcement speech that kicked off his campaign."Hate crimes reported to police in America’s ten largest cities rose 12.5 percent in 2017. The increase was the fourth consecutive annual rise in a row and the highest total in over a decade according to an analysis by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino."[5]

"The Trump effect." This is the phrase used by the Southern Poverty Law Center to describe the up turn in racist behavior. The center reports that not only have attacks on people for race and religion doubled anti-Muslims organizations have tripled."Our report found tat the campaign is producing a high degree of fear and anxiety among children of color and flimflamming racial and Ethnic tensions in the classroom."[6] The Center clearly lays it at Trump's door. Now they are careful to make the caveat that the information is anecdotal and  not a scientific study. Nevertheless the center is a highly respected source and they have testimony from thousands of people. Ten thousand  teachers, counselors, and and administrators of schools responded to their 2016 survey. The SPLC concluded that the election had a profoundly negative effect, 90% of the sample reporting that school climate has been negativity effected.Students of color suffering great anxiety,students targeting each other based upon which candidate was supported,and four of 10 report derogatory language used agaisnt Muslims and people of color.[7]

Mr. Trump’s comment to lawmakers that the United States should accept more immigrants from places like Norway instead of from Haiti or “shithole countries” in Africa did not sound consistent with the notion that all people are equal no matter the place of their birth or the color of their skin.,...If it were a one-time comment, an inadvertent insensitivity, it would still have stirred a firestorm. But Mr. Trump has said so many things on so many occasions that have rubbed the raw edges of race in America that they have raised the larger issue. A country tainted at its founding by slavery and struggling with that legacy ever since is now led by a chief executive who, intentionally or not, has fanned, rather than doused, the fires that divide white, black and brown.[8]

PBS published a list of Trump racial record and there are several positive things Trump has done that remove the stigma of racist. Such as opening various clubs to black membership, his daughter married a Jew and so on.[9] But it is a mixed record and it shows a history of insensitivity,[10]

Of course there is no way to actually prove that. All we have to go on is the correlation but it's a pretty strong correlation. It's clear that Trump did not cause the new racism because it was there and we can see it brewing in the Obama era as a reaction to having a black President, yet  it is clear Trump was a very important trigger, giving supposed  "legitimacy" at the crucial juncture. We can't blame Obama for being black while President nor refuse to vote for the best candidate on the off chance that he night trigger racism. The candidates who plays on sympathy with a base that include the racists is not be trusted. The one who finds that there are lovely people among the racists is playing that game. Still it is not the racism of the man Trump that is at issue but the "Trump effect."

White supremacists agreed. Richard Spencer, the white nationalist leader, said on Friday that conservatives defending Mr. Trump on Fox News should stop saying it was about economics and legal systems, rather than race. “It’s obviously all about race, and to their credit, liberals point out the obvious,” he said.The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, likewise welcomed Mr. Trump’s comments. “This is encouraging and refreshing, as it indicates Trump is more or less on the same page as us with regards to race and immigration,” the site said.[11]

The Trump effect, his luke warm mealy mouthed half acceptneceof white suremicists has emboldoned those rank regardlessof his intensionor hispersona feeling The Daily Stormer agaim

The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi publication, expressed delight: “Trump comments were good. He didn’t attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us. He said that we need to study why people are so angry, and implied that there was hate … on both sides! So he implied the antifa [anti-fascists] are haters. There was virtually no counter-signaling of us at all.”[12]

 

Sources


[1]"Trump Hate Map" America's Voice
https://americasvoice.org/trumphatemap/

former fn1 removed, the 92 year old man was attacked by black men who were not Trumpiies. I made the simple but stupid mistake of belivimg facebook.
Joseph Barracto "92 Year Old Mexican Man Beaten With Brick..." NY Daily News (July 9,2018)

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-news-ny-brick-mexico-20180709-story.html

(accessed on July 12,2018)

[2] Mark Berman "Hate Crimes in The US increased last year FBI Says." The Washington Post   (Niv.13,2017)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/11/13/hate-crimes-in-the-united-states-increased-last-year-the-fbi-says/?utm_term=.67baed36edf6
(accessed on July 12,2018)

[3] Felicia Persaud,  "Blame rising anti-immigrant environment in the US on the hater-in-chief." NY Amsterdam News (5/24/2018,) 
http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2018/may/24/blame-rising-anti-immigrant-environment-us-hater-c/
(accessed on July 12,2018)

[4] Mark Berman, op cit.

[5] Center for the Study of Hate an Extremism. Report To The Nation: Hate Crimes Increase In U.S. Cities And Counties In Time Of Division And Foreign Interference. Researchers, Brian Levin (Author) John David Reitzel (Author/Analytic Charting) 3.
https://csbs.csusb.edu/sites/csusb_csbs/files/2018%20Hate%20Report%205-141PM.pdf
(accessed on July 12,2018)

Data compiled for 38 jurisdictions.
Brian Levin (Author) "is a professor of criminal justice at California State University, San Bernardino, where he is the director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism...He received his JD from Stanford Law School where he was awarded the Block Civil Liberties Award and his BA summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with multiple honors in American History."
John David Reitzel (Author/Analytic Charting) "is an assistant professor of criminal justice at California State University, San Bernardino. He has a PhD in Criminology from the University of Florida and specializes in race, crime, and policing research."

NBC Reporting on this research
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-hate-crimes-20-percent-2016-fueled-election-campaign-n733306

[6] Mark Potock,"Campaign Language of the man Who Would Become President" Southern Poverty Law Center, official site (Feb 15, 2017)
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2017/trump-effect
(accessed on July 12,2018)

[7] Southern Poverty Law Center"The Trump Effect The Impact of The 2016 Presidential Election on Our Nations Schools." (Nov 28,2016)
https://www.splcenter.org/20161128/trump-effect-impact-2016-presidential-election-our-nations-schools
(accessed on July 12,2018)

[8] Peter Baker, "A President Who Fans, Rather than Douses, the Nation's Racial Fores." NY Times (Jan 12,2018)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/us/politics/trump-racism.html
(accessed on July 12,2018)

[9] PBS News Hour, "Every Moment in Trump's Charged Relationship With Race" (Aug 22,2017)
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/every-moment-donald-trumps-long-complicated-history-race

(accessed on July 12,2018)

[10] Ibid

[11] Baker, op cit
(accessed on July 12,2018)

[12] Donald Smith "Trump's Failure to Condemn Virginia Neo Nazis is Schockimg But Not Surprizig," The Guardian, (Aug 14, 2017
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/14/trump-virginia-neo-nazis-analysis
(accessed on July 12,2018)