Fear and loathing in USA as racial tensions bubble to the surface

MONUMENT AVENUE in Richmond, Virginia, is picture-postcard beautiful this time of year.

But bubbling just below the surface racial tension mars the prettiness.

One black taxi driver describes encountering racism at least once every day.

And local students are concerned hate crime is on the rise, aggravated by the presidential race.

There have been incidents of racist, Islamophobic and homophobic graffiti at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

A female Muslim student was even the victim of a death threat.

Some 600 miles northwest is Detroit, Michigan, a city that is 83% black, with a population of about 300,000 American Muslims.

The scenery is different of course, but the social undertones are similar.

On the streets of Motor City, the birthplace of Motown, many people are fearful about the prejudice they say Trump’s campaign has unleashed.

Their main worry is that white supremacists among the Presidentelect’s supporters will feel emboldened to confront people of colour now their guy is in the White House.

One night at a Trump rally in Detroit suburb Sterling Heights – or Sterling Whites as I’m told it’s nicknamed – is plenty proof such anxiety is not unfounded.

The feverish, frenzied “build a wall” chanting by thousands of adults and young children left me shocked and depressed.

In hindsight, it should have been a big indication of a Trump win, that the US was headed for “Brexit plus, plus, plus” as the billionaire put it.

But one after the other academics and professional pundits insisted with confidence that Hillary Clinton would win. Famous last words. They failed to predict that very same sentiment that saw a vote for Brexit in Britain would carry him over the finish line in the US.

I was lulled into a false sense of security, only to again experience that creeping feeling of disbelief on election night, as in the early hours of June 24.

Trump supporters’ motivation to “get their country back” shouldn’t be under-played.

In search of Scottish Americans, I visited a bar at a shopping precinct on the outskirts of Richmond.

I was surprised at the grievance of some punters that the advancement of nonwhites was somehow taking away what was rightfully theirs.

Suzanne Cleage, Detroit chairwoman of the League of Women Voters, says the mood “feels like the 1960s all over again”.

But she also questions whether institutional racism ever went away.

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations, agrees the prejudices, while exacerbated by the Trump campaign, are deep-seated at the heart of American society.

From that perspective, he says it shouldn’t be a “panic moment”.

Kevin Hardy, deputy news editor at the Detroit News, notes the ongoing presence of these social issues, but doesn’t think Trump voters in the Rustbelt were necessarily motivated by wanting to “reset the clock on social progress”.

Instead he argues it came down to three things – frustration at “aggressive” farming regulations, a loss of manufacturing jobs and moves by Clinton’s party to switch to cleaner energy at the expense of coal mining.

Whatever the reasons, America woke up to a Disunited States on Wednesday.

Trump now faces the task of bringing the nation back together, no small undertaking, especially by the very person blamed for exploiting existing divisions.

Because even if the campaign wounds can be healed over time, entrenched attitudes are harder to shift.

These cannot be legislated away, only reshaped through educational and cultural reform.

All you can do is hope the next generation does better.