I naively thought the next generation was better than this.
Students at two Midwest high schools recently hurled Trump-themed insults at Latino students, using the presidential candidate’s anti-immigration rhetoric as inspiration for repulsive basketball game chants.
Fans at Andrean High School in Merrillville, Ind. Friday held a cutout showing Trump’s face and chanted “Build a wall! Build a wall!” during a basketball game against Bishop Noll Institute, which has many Latino students — highlighting Trump’s pledge to erect a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Four days earlier, students at the predominantly-white Dallas Center-Grimes High School in Iowa chanted “Trump! Trump!” during a basketball game against Perry High School, which has a more diverse student population.
There has always been a dark streak in American life. There is the Klan; the unapologetic public beatings of foreigners during World War I, and Jehovahs Witnesses because they consider reciting the Pledge of Allegiance a form of idolatry; the whisper that Roosevelt was really a corruption of the name Rosenfeld and World War II was just a setup for surrender to the Global Jewish Conspiracy; and … on and on.
Now, we have a presidential candidate who has deliberately stimulated and tapped that malice and, according to the polls, he’s going to have a good day.