WASHINGTON — Wearing a long black overcoat and a blue knit camp emblazoned with the name “TRUMP” in all white letters, it wasn’t hard to figure out where Diante S. Johnson stood politically among the thousands who gathered along Pennsylvania Avenue Friday for the inaugural parade.
“He cares deeply for this country and he’s gonna do a great job,” Johnson, 20, a University of Illinois at Champaign student and founder of the Black Conservative Foundation, said in reference to President Donald J. Trump — whom he said he met several times while working on his campaign — as protesters and supporters argued nearby over the legitimacy of Trump’s ascendancy to the White House.
Just a few feet away, Moneka Jani, a recent biodefense graduate from George Mason University, carried a sign that made her stance toward Trump equally as clear.
“I will never support a president who is an overt racist, who has admitted to sexual assault, who has committed financial fraud,” the sign stated in black with a hashtag written in pink that included an expletive that indicated her rejection of President Trump.
“I came to voice my disapproval,” Jani said. “He has no respect for minorities and women. He is here to serve Americans who are White men.”
Jani spoke of her family — Muslim immigrants from India and Pakistan — being targeted by racist remarks and taunts to “go back to your country” like those she said her family experienced in the wake of 9/11.
Despite an inaugural speech in which Trump invoked a Bible verse about unity and stated “there is no room for prejudice” in patriotism, the angry exchanges that could be seen along Pennsylvania Avenue Friday demonstrated that the strife brought about by the 2016 election is unlikely to go away anytime soon.
