Sociologists know it's hard to prove the influence of a person or event upon the common culture. After all, we don't have, say, 30 cultures available for testing, and we expose 15 of them to a stimulus and see how they change, compared to the others. However, historians [cont.]
agree that Woodrow Wilson's racism helped spark the "red summer" of 1919, marked by race riots (whites against people of color), lynchings, etc. Similarly, it seems likely that Trump's rhetoric, occasional encouragement of thuggery, praise for #neoConfederates, etc., [cont.]
has helped spark the attacks in Charlottesville, Pittsburgh, etc. I don't expect to change his rhetoric (though that would be great!), but I do suggest we all need to call it out as bad cultural leadership. It's a "bully pulpit," to be sure, and can be used for good or ill.
