This Is What Happens When a Black Man Goes To a Trump Rally Alone
When James Troup decided to attend a Donald Trump rally in Dayton, Ohio, he knew that there was bound to be more than a bit of factually inaccurate fear mongering, but he never expected to see a crowd literally calling for the murder of protestors.
While Troup himself went to the rally merely to watch the spectacle of it all, he described a number of protestors being dragged out of the venue much to the delight of Trump’s supporters. According to Troup, a black man, his race compelled Trump’s staffers to assign him a security buffer of sorts in the event that the crowd decided to turn on him during the event.
Black ppl at @realDonaldTrump rallies get their own personal Secret Service agent! I named mine George #TrumpRally pic.twitter.com/Z4MSqFq6wx
— J.Troup (@JTroupTV) March 12, 2016
“The scariest part was the crowd,” Troup described in a series of posts to Facebook. “They loved everything that was being said. The calls for the wall. The calls to blow up oil fields. The calls to torture and kill people.”
Throughout the event, Trump fired the crowd up describing the necessity of erecting a wall between the U.S. and Mexico in addition to taking a firm stance in support of torturing enemies of the state.
Trump’s rambling speech was repeatedly drowned out by the crowd’s roaring cheers that were noticeably peppered with a number of racial slurs directed at Latino people and President Barack Obama.
Troup managed to peacefully stand his ground during the bulk of the event until, once more black protestors had been kicked out, Trump supporters focused on him.
“The worst part was when their venom turned toward me,” Troup wrote. “There were protestors around me who got ushered out, and then people started pointing at me, motioning for the Secret Service to ‘get him out of there.’ Now mind you, I hadn’t uttered a single word the entire rally, but people still said things like ‘Well what about this one? He needs to go too!’”
Ultimately, Troup left the event feeling as if he’d witnessed something darker and more insidious than a simple political rally.
“At that rally, I saw the scary underbelly of America I saw unadulterated hate, fueled by intentional misinformation,” Troup said. “These people who, just 2 hours ago, seemed like good and kind people, were now cheering for blood.”