What Has Trump Unleashed?

Yesterday, two friends from church walked through the doors of a local fast-food restaurant and into a heated exchange between two guys: one white, one Asian. The white guy called him a "pussy" and kept trying to get him outside to fight (apparently not noticing that the Asian guy was wearing a martial arts jacket). Eventually, he yelled, "When Trump gets into office, your outta here!"

When I read their account on Facebook, I couldn't help but think, "What have we unleashed? What has Trump unleashed?" I shared the story with a few friends and family members, and one of my cousin's from the Northwest remarked that prior to the election, he had heard two separate references to the "N" word at his golf club that he hadn’t heard in years. He reflected, "It has always been there but somehow just the presence of The Orange One seems to have vindicated the bigotry for some." All we can hope is that such bigotry is limited and contained to small pockets of America. The fact that it popped up in a county that overwhelming voted against Trump (75%-25%) doesn't give me a lot of hope.