Racism is still prevalent in this country.

“More than 300 incidents of harassment or intimidation have been reported following Donald Trump’s election Tuesday night, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) told NBC News Monday,” according to Chelsea Bailey of NBC News.

President-elect Donald Trump has been relatively silent on this, other than an interview on CBS’ 60 minutes. When asked about what has been happening, he said he knew of “one or two instances”, which cannot be true, considering the hate crimes have been in the news quite frequently. Many have been reported, at elementary schools, high schools, and various places in communities.

In Wellsville, New York, someone painted a wall of a dugout with the words “Make America White Again”. The graffiti also included a swastika to go along with the phrase.

A student passed out ‘letters of deportation’ to classmates of different ethnicities at Shasta High School in Redding, California. He believed it was funny and a joke, but really, it’s not.

Though, Trump did say “Stop it,” directly to the camera during the interview, speaking to his supporters who are committing these hate crimes.

Whether or not Trump is lying or just refuses to fully address these hate crimes and those committing them head on, he continues to push away those who were/are disappointed with the election results, further and further.

If he truly cared about uniting all citizens of America together like he has said, Trump would bring more attention to these hate crimes and what we can do as a country to stop them from happening. But he hasn’t. He would apologize about all the disgusting things he said during his campaign. But he hasn’t.

Honestly and truthfully, Trump’s entire campaign was ran on hate, does the phrase “Build the wall!” sound familiar? And let’s not forget when he called Mexicans “rapists.”

Personally I want to give him a chance to prove me wrong, I want him to lead this country well. So far after the election though, he hasn’t given me much reason to give him a true chance. Considering the lack of reaction to these hate crimes, and also, his appointment of Steve Bannon, former executive chairman of Breitbart News, as chief strategist in his White House transition team.  

Breitbart News is known to be an “alt-right” site, full of offensive and off-putting headlines. According to the New York Times editorial board, “under Mr. Bannon [Breitbart News] became what the Southern Poverty Law Center has called a ‘white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill.’”

The fact that Trump would select this man to be one of his head advisors, doesn’t shock me, but it confuses me. You would think Trump had many options of people to chose from, and picking someone who could possibly be affiliated with the words “white nationalist” would not be a choice.

The election data speaks for itself. In an exit poll done by CNN out of  “24,537 respondents”, 63 percent of white men and 53 percent of white women voted for Trump, compared to 31 percent of white men and 43 percent of white women who voted for former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

80 percent of black men and 94 percent of black women voted for Clinton, while only 13 percent of black men and 4 percent of black women voted for Trump.

There is no way this data can be brushed aside as if it’s nothing.

Not all of his supporters are racist, but all of Trump supporters support someone who has said racist things. And racism in America does not solely exist because of Trump, obviously, but this past year and a half of campaigning has shined a light on it.

On election night, CNN political commentator Van Jones expressed his thoughts. “This was a white lash against a changing country. It was a white lash against a black president, in part. And that’s the part where the pain comes,” said Jones. He also said it’s not just about race, which I fully agree with, but he said it does need to be talked about.

I hope this presidential election has not taken our country backwards, and that love will trump hate and bigotry.

Nelson Mandela said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”