Rural Black America Sees Little Hope for Change in Another Trump Term

Sign Up for Everything’s Political Get our politics and culture newsletter delivered to your inbox every Thursday. Subscribe now! We Write the Untold Stories of Black America Sign up for our newsletter to read them each week. Amanda David felt a wave of devastation as reality sank in that former President Donald Trump would lead the country again. Yet, the past four years have felt as if he had never left. She’s been battling ongoing violent threats, racism, and harassment from her white neighbor in Ithaca, New York. The college town and farming community more than 200 miles away from New York City prides itself on being progressive, with Tompkins County residents backing Vice President Kamala Harris and securing wins for Democrats across the board.  @media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 100px;}}@media ( min-width: 320px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 100px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 90px;}}@media ( min-width: 970px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 100px;}} It’s a facade, David says. The racism and segregation is more subtle in the city, where Black people are only 5% of the nearly 31,400 residents. Mere miles away, she recalls seeing Confederate and Trump flags flying high.  It’s not just the rural South or conservative regions — Black people in rural areas across...