MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The hubs of business and economy are now in the rearview mirror as the News21 SUV drives along roads carved into mountains.

It’s the second leg of a nationwide road trip where four News21 journalists – Brittany Brown, Rosanna Cooney, Storme Jones and Tilly Marlatt – each bring their own experiences and expertise to record and document tensions that are present in America today.

We are passing through an America where people are brought to tears voicing pride for their country, citing freedom and the American dream as the reason for getting emotional.

“Where else can you become rich and famous overnight?” asks a woman whose tattooed forearm reads: “Those who suffer the most, scream into the silence.”

Americans tell us that they still long to get along with each other. We are learning to get along, too.  After a bad experience at a Kentucky motel, we learned that it is best not to inquire about bedbugs if you want a room. Americans wanted to be respected, and that means trusted.

In the Appalachian region, much maligned by the enduring hillbilly stereotype, we are hearing how LGBTQ people reclaim a space for themselves in rural communities, and make their voices heard. As we head southwest, toward Tennessee and Arkansas, cardinals flash red in the trees and the summer heat brings a sweeter fragrance to the air.

In almost every interview where President Donald Trump is mentioned, his influence on people’s perception of the nation and their perception of the state of hate is omnipresent.

It is a privilege to be allowed into people’s lives, into their barbershops and catfish ponds, to record their thoughts, lived experiences and impressions of their country at a time when America seems to be transitioning.

News21 fellows Brittany Brown, Storme Jones and Tilly Marlatt contributed to this report.

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

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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’
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“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.