It seems like this should be obvious but I guess I need to say it anyway: when the KKK endorses your guy, when a former KKK Grand Wizard is supporting your guy, you picked the wrong guy.

Trump’s history of racist behavior stretches back decades. He was sued by the Department of Justice for racially motivated housing discrimination in the 70’s, and controversy around racial issues has followed him ever since.

Trump was one of the primary proponents of the racist “birther” conspiracy surrounding former President Obama’s birth certificate. He has attracted the attention of the so-called “alt-right” (“white nationalist”) movement for years; his Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor Steve Bannon has close ties to the alt-right publication Breitbart News. 

Throughout Trump’s campaign, the rhetoric he employed at his rallies stirred up anger against immigrants, primarily against Arab and North African Muslims and Spanish-speaking Latin@s. Since his election, a surge in hate crimes has been documented. Anti-Semitism is on the rise: bomb threats were made against Jewish synagogues and community centers across the country in January 2017, while Neo-Nazis are brazenly gathering in Washington D.C. and saluting President Trump.

Even my hometown of Lancaster County got in on the action: students carrying a Trump sign the day after the election were filmed shouting “white power”  in York.