RNA - In the days after Donald Trump’s presidential victory, the words played out in online articles and social media, prompting droves of Internet users to look up their definitions: fascism, bigot, xenophobe, racism, misogyny. The terms were among the top-eight searches on Merriam-Webster on Sunday, less than five days after the election, the online dictionary tweeted.
Americans perhaps were trying to make sense of a wave of postelection acts of hate, including the robbery of a Muslim student at San Diego State University who wore traditional religious clothing, a black church in Mississippi set on fire and spray-painted with “Vote Trump” on the wall, and another church in Indiana vandalized with a swastika and the words “Heil Trump.”
Although it’s unclear which groups and individuals are responsible for the acts, at least three organizations have tracked a notable spike in such incidents since the election.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes, had counted 201 incidents of election-related harassment and intimidation nationwide as of Friday. Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., told USA Today, “The white supremacists out there are celebrating his victory and many are feeling their oats.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations also reported an increase in complaints made to its offices since the election. And the Anti-Defamation League noticed a spike in reports of racist and anti-Semitic graffiti and vandalism in the first two days after the election.
In his first extensive televised interview since being elected, Trump told CBS’ Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes” that he was saddened to hear Latinos and Muslims have been facing harassment. “And I say, ‘Stop it,'” Trump said. “If it — if it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: ‘Stop it.’”
He also criticized the outburst of protests in response to his election win in cities across the country, which produced in Portland, Ore., a level of violence sufficiently intense to be called a “riot” by police.
But on the same day Trump said “Stop it,” the decision was announced that Stephen Bannon would become White House chief strategist. As The Washington Post’s Jose A. DelReal reported, Bannon is the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, a voice of the “alt-right,” a conservative movement that was once considered “fringe” and that is saturated with racially insensitive rhetoric and elements of outright white nationalism.
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