Since President Donald Trump was elected in 2016, he has given Americans permission to be more open with their racism. It’s like a game of “follow the leader,” where the president refuses to condemn Nazis and white supremacists, subsequently inspiring his supporters to drop the friendly facade and let their bigotry show.

It’s even happened right here in Orange County. Recent controversy arose over a football game took place at Aliso Niguel High School (ANHS), a school that’s a mere 30 minutes away from Chapman – and that just so happens to be my alma mater.

On Sept. 7, the ANHS football team played the Santa Ana High School (SAHS) football team. After the game, Jeff Bishop, SAHS’s principal, accused ANHS students in the crowd of racism towards his school’s team.

Later that night, Bishop wrote on Facebook that he noticed signs that said, “We Love White” and “Build the Wall” and heard the ANHS student section chanting “U.S.A! U.S.A!” when their team scored touchdowns.

“My students are scholars, dreamers, American citizens,” Bishop said, according to the Orange County Register. “(ANHS) was not playing against Germany or Mexico. They were playing my kids, (from) 22 minutes down the freeway.”

Deni Christensen, ANHS’s principal, confirmed that school officials disposed of students’ signs, some of which read “Trump 2020” and “We’re going to Trump you,” according to the Orange County Register. Christensen said that the chants of “U.S.A!” and other patriotic decorations were part of the “Red, White and Blue” theme that the school has each year in rememberance of 9/11, although the school’s Instagram made no mention of the holiday.

Back in May 2016, I threw my graduation cap in the air along with hundreds of my fellow classmates at ANHS. Back then, I could never have imagined writing this piece. I’m not saying that my high school was perfect, but I never witnessed such open displays of racism while I attended.

If you grew up in Orange County like me, you know the difference between living in the southern and northern part of Orange County. Southern Orange county conjures up images of gated communities filled with $600,000 cookie-cutter houses, beachside mansions and organic juice bars. Northern Orange County, however, where SAHS is located, has a 21 percent rate of poverty and a large homeless population, with more than 1,000 people as of April 2018.

Much like the high schools themselves, southern Orange County has a majority white population, while northern Orange County’s population is mostly Hispanic. In 2017, out of Aliso Viejo’s 51,671 residents, more than 70 percent were whiteand the median household income was about $103,000. In Santa Ana, out of its 334,136 residents, almost 78 percent were Hispanic and the median household income was about $54,000, according to the U.S. Census.

As of last year at ANHS, 55.8 percent of students were white, according to the California Department of Education, and at SAHS, 98.6 percent of students were Hispanic. As a white person who grew up in Aliso Viejo, I know people there tend to have a negative perception of northern Orange County. Many believe the general area to be “ghetto” and “poor,” a sentiment that is racially motivated.

It doesn’t surprise me now that students at ANHS felt comfortable being openly discriminatory toward students from SAHS. According to a three-year ProPublica’s study, the highest number of reports of “hate or bias” on a single day in K-12 schools was November 9, 2016 — the day after Trump’s election.

Chapman professor Pete Simi, who studies far-right extremism, said that college campuses across the nation also saw a substantial increase of white supremacist activity from 2016 to 2017.

ANHS is just like many other high schools out there, in a town just like many others in the U.S. But it doesn’t matter how typical the setting is, because this type of behavior is the new normal – thanks to Trump.
However, that doesn’t mean we should stop standing up for people who are being discriminated against. If you see racist behavior, intervene when safe to do so and always report incidents. Maybe with enough vigilance, we can once again make racists too afraid to show their true colors.