Schools report racist incidents in wake of Trump election

In the wake of Donald Trump’s election, reports of racist incidents are emerging from the nation’s schools and universities, including students who chanted “white power” and called black classmates “cotton pickers.”

Reporting by the Associated Press and local media outlets has identified more than 20 such encounters beginning on Election Day.

At the University of New Mexico, a Muslim engineering student said a man attempted to snatch off her hijab Tuesday.

“I turned around and there’s a really buff guy wearing a Trump shirt,” freshman Leena Aggad said. “He reaches his hand out to my forehead and attempts to pull my scarf off.”

On Wednesday, minority students at a high school in Illinois organized a protest after a “whites only” message was found scrawled on a bathroom door. The same day in Michigan, students at Royal Oak Middle School were filmed chanting “Build a wall” in the cafeteria.

At Trump’s alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, black freshmen were added to a group chat in which one post read “daily lynching,” and one participant was called a “dumb slave.”

Also in Pennsylvania, two students at the York County School of Technology held a Trump sign as someone shouted “white power.” Sandra Thompson, president of the NAACP there, said the parents of black children in local schools have been told to “go back to Africa.”

The words – and violence – cut both ways.

A videotaped assault in Chicago shows black men beating a white man as onlookers scream “You voted Trump.” The teenager who shot the video told WFLD-TV the dispute began over a traffic accident and escalated with bystanders’ shouts about the election, which was not a factor in the fight.