PERRY, Iowa — In an America that often seems more divided, there remains one event that brings people together: the Fourth of July.

The residents of Perry, Iowa, a farming and meatpacking town of 7,800, 45 minutes northwest of Des Moines, joined across party and ethnic lines – over a third of residents are Hispanic — to celebrate the 242nd anniversary of America’s freedom.

Perched in front of his home on Wills Avenue, town educator Eddie Diaz and members of his young family watched excitedly as the town’s annual parade passed.

Diaz, who is 39, said he came to Perry during the mid-1990s, when there was a large influx of Hispanics into the area, making Perry newly diverse. Until this spring, he was principal of St. Patrick’s Catholic School.

“We have a lot of people living here from Latino backgrounds and we have a small refugee population,” he said. “There are always tensions and frictions in any community, but it’s more between individuals than groups.”

Diaz said that when the demographic change came to the previously all-white community, some white people began to leave.

“The people who were less accepting of diversity have chosen to leave the town and so the people that have stayed are more accepting,” Diaz said. “I don’t put too much thought into the people that leave. I think it’s unfortunate. But as an educator and a father, I have to focus on the positivity that is in the community.”

He said that the small community “creates positive change” every day for the future of its children.

“I teach my children that we are all Americans, we’re here for the same thing and ultimately if we want to live in a happy society, we have to help each other and get along,” he said.

As the parade flowed down the street, community members left their porches to follow the parade into the town park, Pattee Park, for music, food, dancing and games.

Jerry Roberts from nearby Jefferson, Iowa, took a break from enjoying the fun to discuss where America stands today, recognizing the divides the country is facing.

“There are religious divides and, within religion, there are divides within that …,” he said. “And then you have regional divides and now you get into political divides.”

Roberts added that, while these issues are happening, people aren’t talking with each other about it very effectively.

“You’ve got to sit down and be able to talk problems and instead, we just shout at each other,” he said.

Lauri Haynes, who was cooking kettle corn at the park, echoed Roberts. She described the country as like a “junior high school cafeteria.”

“It’s like everyone’s reading headlines and making opinions based on one person and it’s juvenile,” Haynes said.

After packing up our things from the farmhouse where the News21 crew were guests, we headed eastward.

The next stop was Carbon Hill, Illinois, a predominately white town of 345 residents, about an hour southeast of Chicago. The fellows stepped inside Mustachios, a bar on North Third Street and West Lacey Street.

Diane Eartly, co-owner of the bar, grew up in Coal City, Illinois, another village five minutes from Carbon Hill where “everybody knows everybody.”

While growing up, Eartly said she didn’t notice many divides in the country.

Today, as she still resides in the small town, she noticed that America “is changing.”

Too many people are spending time on their cellphones, shopping online, dating online, and not talking to each other or supporting their local stores, she said.

Stephanie Long, a bartender at Mustachios, said she was a Bernie Sanders supporter when he was running for president.

“There’s a lot of growing that needs to be done, but I’m hoping (America) will get better,” she said.

News21 fellow Penelope Blackwell contributed to this report.

Follow the News21 blog for updates as the team reports on the road.

The post <b>The State of Hate:</b> Americans still march to July 4th tunes
appeared first on Hate in America.

SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota — America’s early presidents would not be proud of the U.S. today, according to some tourists visiting Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

On the seventh day of the News21 roadtrip, the fellows visited an iconic American site to talk with people about the state of hate in the country.

In the powerful presence of the stone-carved faces of four admired U.S. presidents, tourists discussed race issues and America’s current political divide.

Jeff and Janet Smith from Michigan, perched on a bench to take in the famous mountain.

“Being here at Mount Rushmore just levels me so much,” Janet Smith said. “Our country needs to go back to what the founding fathers stood for. We need to be together and not 100 different groups fighting for our own thing. If you’re going to be here, be American like the founding fathers were. You came here for a reason, be dedicated.”

Her husband, Jeff, said the country has a long way to go with race problems, but the political problem is “huge,” too. He said the media is spurring the tension by showing all negatives and no positives.

“There are as many positive people in the country as there are negative and we always show the negativity,” Jeff Smith said. “You can persuade people to think one way if that’s the only way you show it.”

Looking at the mountain, he said the founding fathers wouldn’t be proud of the country today. If there were “men of their caliber today, we could be united again,” he added.

“The presidents here at Mount Rushmore could straighten out America,” he said. “America doesn’t have as strong of a leader today. We have too many ego politicians that are all about themselves and these guys weren’t. They were about building America.”

Charles Smith from Orlando, Florida, echoed the thought that politics is currently dividing the nation.

“The left is opposed to our president who we fully support,” Smith said. “They’re not doing what’s good for America. I think the founding fathers would be upset with the divides.

“Ninety-one percent of the media is reporting on Trump negatively,” he added. “The media has the Trump effect. People criticize Trump for tweeting, but that’s the only way he can reach the people, because the media won’t report what he’s saying accurately.”

Teacher’s aide Phil Dempsey from LakeLand, Florida, applauded efforts made today to deal justly with every culture, but he said political and racial divides are getting in the way.

“It’s really hard for African Americans no matter where they are,” Dempsey said. “They are racially profiled. Police come into neighborhoods and stop them for no reason. It’s always been bad but there is just more attention on it now and it’s bringing it to the forefront.”

Despite the divides in America, Dempsey said the early leaders of the country would be proud of certain aspects of America today.

“They would be proud of the economics of the country but there are things we could still change racially,” he said. “I don’t think they would be proud of the immigration policies at the moment, with families being separated at the border.”

Steve Mellado, of Michigan, on vacation with his wife, Brandy, and four children, said how children are raised affects whether they will feel hatred against people who are different from them.

“As you can see, we’re diversified, multi-colors and multinationals,” Steve Mellado said, pointing to his own mixed family. “There are political and racial divides and there always will be. It’s like that in every country. I think the hate is more media-driven at the moment.”

He added that these times are different in another way – hate is spread more widely and easily because of social media.

About 300 miles east of Mount Rushmore, the News21 SUV pulled up outside a lesser, but venerable, roadside attraction: The World’s Only Corn Palace.

The palace, in the heart of Mitchell, was built in 1892 as a way to prove to the world that South Dakota had a healthy agricultural climate.

About 500,000 tourists come from around the nation each year to see the corn murals.

Among them was Lauren Langston of Virginia, who is traveling the country in an RV with her husband, Devon. She said she likes that America is a melting pot, saying it’s part of its character, and always will be.

Langston added that although there are “divides among every group at the moment,” it’s important to remember our nation’s history, and that racial segregation wasn’t that long ago. She remembers her mother telling her about whites-only drinking fountains.

“Racial tensions don’t just go away because laws are made. It takes time,” Langston said. “It’s the same with gay marriage. Just because it was legalized doesn’t mean everyone feels great about it. If you want to change people’s minds you have to do it by getting to know people and having love and compassion for them.”

News21 fellows Brandon Bounds, Penelope Blackwell and Lenny Martinez Dominguez contributed to this report.

Follow the News21 blog for updates as the team reports on the road.

The post <b>The State of Hate:</b> Rushmore inspires American unity in a divided time
appeared first on Hate in America.

LARAMIE, Wyoming — As the News21 road warriors cruised through the West, they saw the attitudes change with the landscapes.

In Elko, Nevada, a casino town of 20,000 people, several residents said there were no major tensions or divisions in their town.

Janet Peterson, who works at the Cowboy Arts and Gear Museum in Elko, said while there is a climate of hate in America, Elko is very welcoming. She said it is home to about 5,000 Hispanic immigrants.

“They keep to themselves,” she said.

But she sees value in their presence: “There’s a good Mexican store a few blocks away, I can’t remember what it’s called, but I go there because I like the tamales.”

There are problems with hate in America, Peterson said, “but I don’t think it’s one skin color versus another, or one culture versus another.”

Across the dusty Elko bridge, the News21 SUV tracked down the recommended tamales at La Unica Mexican Market.

Patricia Sanchez, a Mexican immigrant who lives in Elko with her family, had a different view of the town, going back a couple of decades.

“I experienced racial bias when I was working here in the 2000s,” Sanchez said. “I was a manager and an American woman didn’t like that I told her what to do. I would ask her to do something and she would ask ‘why?’ and said that I was a Mexican and that she didn’t have to listen to me. It was really tough.”

Sanchez said she worries about the national temperature.

“I’ve seen more racism and discrimination with our current president, who calls us ‘Indians’ that have come to take American jobs,” she said. “Many times, we Latinos do the work that Americans don’t do.”

The News21 SUV headed 230 miles east to Salt Lake City in Utah.

Along the endless I-80, the landscape quickly changed from gray-orange to green as trees and rivers hugged the highway into Utah.

In Salt Lake City, the News21 SUV pulled up outside the Utah Capitol where an estimated 2,500 people were protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, mandating the separation of children from immigrant parents. It was one of more than 700 protests across the country that day calling for families to be reunited.

Lisa Corsetti from Heber City, Utah, said the president’s policies promote hatred and separation between groups.

“Donald Trump has subtle ways of promoting the hatred of certain groups, like calling immigrants animals and saying that they are infesting our country,” Corsetti said. “That is all hate speech that promotes a mob mentality. We’re better if we love people and take people for who they are and not how they look or who they love.”

Corsetti said she believes the president has given permission for hate speech.

“Hatred in America has always been below the surface, but because of Donald Trump, it is now acceptable for people to say they hate people,” Corsetti said. “I’m not proud of America. I’m not going to fly my American flag on the Fourth of July. Instead I’m going to fly my resistance flag.”

Nayeli Huerta from Salt Lake City, who protested with her 16-month-old son Adarius, said she fears for her son’s future because he is biracial.

“There is a lot of brutality and violence and I fear that could be a problem for him, just because of who he is,” she said.

She is hoping it gets better, but for now, she said “it’s worse than the past.”

“In Salt Lake City, there are a lot of racial and political divides,” she added. “I’m not as proud of America as I used to be.”

Brianna Manzanares, a sociology student at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, interviewed at the protest, said her roller derby team strives for diversity and inclusion, but not everyone agrees on some of today’s cultural issues.

“There are divides all across the board,” Manzanares said.

There are those who don’t believe in LGBTQ rights, those that believe that being transgender is inhumane, she explained. One person said having these beliefs is too much for 2018.

Still, Manzanares described Salt Lake City as more open to diverse communities than 10 years ago.

“There is a strong LGBTQ community and there are a lot of immigration programs,” she said. “Salt Lake City has become an inclusive place for everybody, and while there is more work to do, we are taking steps in the right direction.”

After Salt Lake City, the News21 road warriors headed toward greener pastures in Wyoming.

About 150 miles east of Salt Lake City, the SUV stopped outside the Little America hotel on Interstate 80. The location is surrounded by mountains.

Technician Mike Smith and his wife Tirzah, a second grade teacher, were with their church youth group on a road trip to Martin’s Cove, a historic site on the Mormon Trail in Wyoming.

They expressed pride when talking about their diverse home community, Orem, Utah.

“People from Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Romania live all within three of four blocks of where we live,” Mike Smith said. “Pride is a choice. Friends are friends. You should consider all your neighbors your friends.”

The couple also spoke of frictions beyond their own Utah community of 90,000 people.

“Throughout the whole world there is diversity, but that doesn’t have to divide people,” Mike Smith said. “There will always be small pockets of people who are screaming about the squeaky wheel and they’ll get all the oil. That’s what you hear on the news. It’s a bunch of junk. You don’t see all the anger that you hear on the news. I don’t think the media is creating the hate, but they publicize what they think will sell. It’s just natural. I don’t see the tension that the media reports. I love America. I wish the squeaky wheels would grow up and realize that there is no difference between everybody. The majority of Americans are the best thing in the world. We have a lot of diversity, the people are as different as the landscapes.”

About 100 miles east, the News21 SUV stopped at a fluorescent fireworks business “in the middle of nowhere,” according to brothers Nate and Ross Melchio who run the store at Creston Junction in Wyoming.

The fireworks store, which has been opened for 55 years, stands isolated near I-80, with its only neighbor – an abandoned gas station. The business has its busy times, the brothers said, and a cross-section of American society stops by the store. Many people cross the border from other states to buy their fireworks, especially around July 4.

Nate Melchio said there is “always friction” between people, but that “it’s mostly political and racial at the moment.”

Still, Melchio said, “I am proud of America still though because there is opportunity for people to run businesses like what I’m doing here now. You can make your future better if you are willing to work hard.”

His brother, Ross, added that there is hate wherever you go.

“The media puts out that African-Americans and the LGBTQ community are the most targeted,” but he said he still views America as “a country of freedom and diversity.”

Back on the road again, the News21 SUV headed toward a night’s rest in Laramie, Wyoming, a community of more than 32,000 people.

Outside Laramie, there is no sign of civilization, with vast green fields stretching for miles. Small lakes abutt the roads, and hundreds of cows dotting the fields in the distance.

The town is near where Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming was beaten, tortured and left to die near Laramie on the night of Oct. 6, 1998. It has been described as one of the worst anti-gay hate crimes in American history.

Shepard’s murder garnered international attention and spurred federal hate crime legislation. In October 2009, the U.S. Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Buck Ward, who runs the Buckhorn Bar & Parlor, declined to comment on the legacy of Matthew Shepard, saying the event does not represent Laramie today.

“Hate and friction is everywhere around us. Even here in the bar, we disagree about politics,” Ward said. “I think Trump is a big (expletive). He’s out of touch with America and what Americans want. It’s the things he’s saying and not saying that is spurring hate.”

“There is a clear political and racial divide in America,” Logan Lee said. “Being an interracial couple, we see the race thing. Talking about it and hyping it up makes it worse for us. People have made comments to us, but it’s a lot better in Wyoming than in South Carolina when we go back home. Here, there isn’t the history of racial tensions.”

Fred Lee said he doesn’t have any worries as an interracial couple and the media has a huge influence on the public perception of hate.

“The media is making things a bigger deal than they are,” he said. “Everything becomes more heightened when the media can reach millions of people on their phones.”

News21 fellows Brandon Bounds, Penelope Blackwell and Lenny Martinez Dominguez contributed to this report.

Follow the News21 blog for updates as the team reports on the road.

The post <b>The State of Hate:</b> ‘You don’t see all the anger you see on the news’
appeared first on Hate in America.

ELKO, Nevada — Traveling along the famous dusty Winnemucca Road, the News21 SUV crossed through the gateway to the Nevada outback, the fellows taking in the last of the mountain air.

On the third day of the cross-country road trip, News21 traveled through “the Silver State” of Nevada to ask a small sampling of the 3 million residents about the climate of hate in America.

In a small coffee shop in Incline Village, a town of 8,777 on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe, local resident Charlie White, who was sitting at the IV Coffee Lab, said there has always been friction in America, but people are now getting lost in the negative news stories.

“Love will always overpower any hate and misunderstanding that is happening in the world,” he said. “If you focus on love instead of hate and all the good things that happen in this country, you’ll see there is far more love in this country than there is hate.”

Sitting across the coffee table, White’s close friend Jeff Rauenhorst echoed the sentiment.

“I just came back from doing the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage in Spain, and everybody there was walking together on the same path and working together,” Rauenhorst said. “We are all just people walking this planet together. We have more in common than we have differences and most people just don’t realize that.”

A few miles down the road, at a site overlooking the blue expanse of Lake Tahoe, Nate Thomas from Boston, Massachusetts, said America can be a hostile place.

“We’ve gone backwards as a society,” Thomas said. “Racism, hate and segregation is not getting any better. It’s now more visible to everyone through the power of social media.”

About 35 miles east of Lake Tahoe in the center of the historic town of Virginia City, Paul Coombes handed out free samples of kettle corn to tourists outside Breck and Dave’s Kettle Corn Depot. When asked about attitudes and conditions in America today, he said his family has experienced hate.

“I come from an ethnic family. My daughter, Zoe, is half African-American, so I am very sensitive to the topic of hate,” Coombes said. “I think all races have a lot of work to do. It’s better than it used to be, but we have a long way to go.”

He said his daughter has been the subject of hate speech by a fellow student too young to have those opinions without prompting from home.

“That’s not something a child would think for himself,” he said.

Another 60 miles east, deeper into Nevada, Brian Baldwin, who supplies produce to gas stations and small stores in Lyon County, said America has become too political.

“America was pretty cool for quite a while there. You could go anywhere and do anything,” he said. “I had African friends who would make their traditional meals for us and Mexican friends who would make proper Mexican food. Today, you go and get sushi and you’re accused of cultural appropriation. People are too politically sensitive.”

The News21 SUV in now traveling farther into the Silver State of Nevada, heading toward Utah.

News21 fellows Brandon Bounds, Penelope Blackwell and Lenny Martinez Dominguez contributed to this report.

Follow the News21 blog for updates as the team reports on the road.

The post <b>The State of Hate:</b> ‘America was pretty cool for a while’
appeared first on Hate in America.

INYO COUNTY, Calif. — As News21 journalists traveled through California, residents repeatedly used one word to describe the mood in America — fear.

Fear of the unknown. Fear of difference. Fear of hate.

At Gus’s Fresh Jerky Shop in Olancha, California, Whittier College sociology major Nora Berguem explains how hate and fear still reside in America today.

Outside the colorful, quaint store hangs a flag saying “God bless America,” but she said the country still remains racially and politically divided.

“There is a lot of friction between racial groups in America. African-Americans and immigrants are particularly targeted today,” Berguem said. “Children are practically being put into internment camps at the moment. We like to say that we’re ashamed of the Manzanar National Historic Site down the road, which was used as an internment camp for the Japanese during World War II, but yet we’re doing the same thing again today. If we look back at what is happening now in 30 years, we will be really ashamed,” she said in reference to President Donald Trump’s zero tolerance policy where migrant families have been separated at the U.S. border.

Fifteen miles north from the lively jerky shop along one of California’s oldest highways, the News21 SUV pulls up at the Manzanar National Historic Site.

Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, some 120,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned at the camp overlooking the vast Sierra mountains.

The now desolate camp stands alone in the middle of the desert as a reminder to American society of how hate and fear can quickly materialize.

Tourist Mina Monden, who was born in Japan but immigrated to America in 1968, bows her head at the memorial, paying homage to her ancestors.

“Hate comes from fear and lack of understanding. If you have a totally different skin color from someone else, you automatically become afraid,” Monden said. “I’m from Japan and we have thousands of different cultures and beliefs, but we never have a fight or hate each other. In America, people are different.”

Hundreds of paper cranes strung together decorated the Manzanar cemetery, left as offerings from visitors. The front of a large stone monument reads “Soul Consoling Tower” in Japanese Kanji characters.

“Being here today at the old Japanese internment camp, I feel for my ancestors,” Monden said. “Americans were afraid of the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. That’s why they treated us like this here. Otherwise they wouldn’t intern all the Japanese together. They were afraid for their country.”

Tourists Terry and Elizabeth Vance from Elko, Nevada, echoed this sentiment of fear.

“Anybody who is different is a target in America today. We are building walls, we are still building weird prisons in the middle of nowhere like this Japanese internment camp,” Terry Vance said. “I think there are people who have learned (from our past). I hope in my heart that will be enough.”

Bernadette Johnson, superintendent of the National Park Service at Manzanar, said the internment camp shows what happens when fear, racism and prejudice build up against one group of people.

“I don’t think we want to make that mistake again. We know it’s a dark part of our nation, but it’s a place where people have to come and contemplate what can happen when fear and racism occur,” Johnson said. “That is what led to the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during WWII. We simply cannot forget what happened to those people and we cannot let it happen again.”

Forty-five miles north of Manzanar, back on the dusty U.S. Highway 395, the News21 SUV drives through Johnson’s hometown of Bishop, California, with a population of 3,800.

It is there that reporters meet community activist Stephen Muchovej, who emigrated from Brazil and lives in the small town with his husband, Eric.

“As humans we intrinsically fear the unknown. We fear what is foreign to us. We see it within all communities,” Muchovej said. “Within the LGBTQ community, there is fear especially among the transgender community. No one, unless you are transgender can say what it really means to be transgender. There is a still a lot of fear about what that means. Fear of the unknown. And that is what is causing hate and divides in America today.”

With that parting thought in mind, the News21 SUV leaves behind sunny California to find new stories in Nevada.

News21 fellows Brandon Bounds, Penelope Blackwell and Lenny Martinez Dominguez contributed to this report.

Follow the News21 blog for updates as the team reports on the road.

The post <b>The State of Hate:</b> Fear of the unknown
appeared first on Hate in America.

“The State of Hate” road trip is part of a larger reporting project called “Hate in America,” examining how hate is changing the nation.

The fellows on the three-week road trip will talk to Americans from all walks of life and across the fault-lines of political, economic and racial differences.

They are part of a 38-member team of News21 reporters, based at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. While other News21 fellows are mostly traveling this summer to major cities for interviews, the eight road-trip fellows have a different purpose: to explore the off-beaten paths and examine the state of hate in more secluded American towns and at some of the nation’s most iconic places.

Journalists Jim Tuttle and Alex Lancial are leading the three-week, 7,000-mile trek.

Fellows Catherine Devine, Brandon Bounds, Lenny Martinez Dominguez and Penelope Blackwell will cover the first leg of the road trip. They will travel through California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. In Chicago on July 5, fellows Rosanna Cooney, Storme Jones, Shelby Knowles and Brittany Brown will take over the tour, doing interviews in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. Side trips are likely.

Follow the News21 blog for updates as the team reports while on the road.

The post <b>The State of Hate:</b> News21 is crossing the country
appeared first on Hate in America.