Rise of Discrimination in The United States During and After the 2016 Election

The 2016 United States presidential election was one of the most controversial elections in recent times. The Democratic parties nominee was Hilary Clinton and The Republican parties nominee was Donald Trump. Donald Trump won the election based on electoral votes even though Hilary Clinton had more votes overall. It seems suiting that the most controversial nominee won the race. The way in which Donald Trump ran his campaign was never seen before and it made him a very polarizing figure. His campaign divided a lot of people and it increased tensions between people of different ethnicity's and beliefs. After Trump won the presidency there was an increase in discrimination across the United States. Especially in the 10 days after Trump won the election since there was an outbreak of up to 900 hate crimes.

Trump's Presidential Campaign

Trump's presidential campaign officially began in June 16, 2015. He had been discussing the idea of running for a few years and most people ridiculed the idea. It was an unprecedented move for a billionaire reality show star to run for the presidency. The past 44 presidents had all held a government position before winning the presidency, something that Donald Trump had never done. During his campaign he gained a lot of support from a lot of people who were anti establishment. His supporters believed that since Trump was the only presidential candidate who hadn't held a position in any level of government before, he would be the one who could fix the "system". His main opponent who was Hilary Clinton was the exact opposite since not only was she the first lady of The United States, she was also a senator for the state of New York, from 2001-2009, and she was the secretary of state from 2009-2013 during Barak Obama presidency. It became a presidential race between establishment and anti-establishment which Donald Trump ultimately won.

Discrimination During The Campaign

During his campaign Donald Trump made many comments that were seen as discriminatory against minorities and women. His most famous statement about Mexicans was in June 16th, 2015 when he said "When Mexico sends it people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,". Trump also wants to build a wall across the border of Mexico and the USA. This raised tensions between Mexicans and Trump's supporters. During the campaign, Trump also said that he wanted to place a travel ban on Muslims. He also described women in very derogatory terms throughout his campaign. However this did not deter his follower and it can be argued that it may have increased his popularity in some cases.

Rise of Discrimination Against Black Americans

Discrimination against black people in America is not a recent phenomenon. It dates back to the era of slavery. However, there was a undeniable spike in discrimination against black people after the Trump campaign. It started with Donald Trump kicking out a black person that was at one of his rallies. Trump asked the man if he was paid $1,500 to be thug. It later turned out that the man was actually a Trump supporter. This led to multiple other cases were black people were harassed verbally and in at least one case physically during Trump rallies. As expected this type of harassment persisted after the election as well. In one case, in Missouri, black students were told to sit in the back of the bus whilst there were chants of "Trump! Trump! Trump!". On the same day a white students burnt a black student with a hot glue gun. There were reports of similar situations in other schools as well in the following days after the election was over. These acts of discrimination were seen outside of schools as well. In the 10 days following Trump's victory there was a reported 187 anti-black hate crimes.

Rise of Discrimination Against Muslims

One of president Trump's first moves in office was to place a travel ban on citizens from Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. These six countries have a population that consists of mostly Muslims. This travel ban was later blocked by an attorney general. In the first half of 2017 there was a 91% increase in Islamophobic hate crimes when compared to the same period of time in 2016. In one case at Mission Peak in Fremont, California, a lady who was wearing a bandanna on her hike, which was mistaken as hijab, had her car windows smashed and her purse stolen. There was also a threatening note left in her car which referenced her 'hijab' Several Muslim women have also reported having their hijab torn off by Trump supporters. Incidents like this have risen since the end of the election.