http://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/election/article114423343.htmlTrump’s America: ‘Is it true, Tarrant County voted to get rid of us?’BY DIANE SMITH AND JEFF CAPLAN
The great divide that existed before Donald Trump was elected president remains.
While Trump called for unity in his victory speech early Wednesday — followed by similar pleas from Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama — the opposite has happened.
On social media, families and friends unfriended each other. Facebook posts have been long and heartfelt, expressing both joy and fear.
Anti-Trump protests continued this weekend across the nation, including Fort Worth and Dallas. Complaints of Trump supporters bullying students in schools has been steady.
Minorities are among those most concerned, saying they’re seeing a culture of hate bloom before them.
“We had several who are frightened,” said Kathryn Everest, director of guidance and counseling for the Fort Worth school district, talking about minority students. “ ‘Is it true, Tarrant County voted to get rid of us?’ ”
Tarrant County was the only large urban county in Texas to vote red, 52 percent for Trump to 43 percent for Clinton.
“Our young people don’t understand that there is more to an election than just one platform,” Everest said. “Kids don’t understand that a lot of the voting was about the Supreme Court or healthcare. It wasn’t all about immigration issues.”
Still, the fear persists.
Fort Worth police officer Brandon Morris was placed on restrictive duty last week as the department investigates a post on his Facebook page, calling on black people to purchase “many guns and rounds of ammunition” and be ready as “you may have to answer the call for revolution sooner than you think.”
Habib Rahman, 12, a seventh-grader who lives in suburban Dallas, said his mother broke into tears while driving him to school after Tuesday’s election. He said he put his hand on her shoulder and recited a passage from the Quran about ease following hardship.
“I’d barely seen my mom cry. And when I do, I feel like I should try and help her as quickly as possible,” he said.
Ten-year-old Cecily, a student at Fort Worth’s Nash Elementary School whose father is an undocumented immigrant, wrote an essay about her feelings. Out of fear for her safety, Cecily’s parents didn’t want her full name published.
“I was worried and kind of scared,” Cecily wrote. “I wasn’t sure what was going to happen if [Trump] did become president. Now that I know, I am trying to be positive about it.”
Jason Waller, an engineering student at Southern Methodist University and a military veteran, said that if communities are going to bridge this divide, they need to do it at the grassroots.
Waller, who voted for Trump, said people shouldn’t assume that everyone who voted for the New York City billionaire is bigoted or racist.
“We should be working together to try to find a solution,” Waller said. “We have to stop this business of ‘us versus them.’ ”
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