VICE -- I called up Jason McDaniel, a political scientist at San Francisco State University. He explained the results of a recent study he conducted about the correlation of what people in the field call “racial resentment” and support for Donald Trump, and he told me that Clinton’s original comments weren’t far off.
“I think that one of the defining characteristics of the Obama era of politics is that racism and racial attitudes have re-emerged. But then again, I wouldn't say that Americans are more racist than they were prior to the civil rights movement,” McDaniel says. “The voices of those who are racist are being amplified in ways, especially by campaigns like Donald Trump’s, that we haven’t seen in many decades. I don’t think that more people hold explicitly racist views, but it’s more likely that those messages are getting out and being amplified by politicians.
“I think we are seeing an emergence of something that’s scary and that we should be worried about."