I just had one of those experiences where a lot of little things conspire to paint a big, scary picture.

The other day I was driving to work and passed a Pontiac with this bumper sticker: “Toyota: From the fine folks that brought you Pearl Harbor Day.” Whoa. I didn’t really consider it blatantly racist, largely because the driver looked really old and he had a Navy bumper sticker, too. Maybe he was there. Not that I love it, but racism from war veterans seems less offensive to me, like John McCain continuing to use the racial slur “gooks” to refer to his captors.

That same night, I was watching the tall ships as a Chinese junk sailed in. I didn’t get the whole context of what they were saying, but someone nearby said something about how it was probably bringing lots of diseases into our country.

I’ve long thought that the immigration issue is being exploited by racists. There are plenty of non-racists who are really bothered by illegal immigration, surely, but I’ve also heard enough discussions about illegal immigration turn into racial slurs describing Mexicans to know that racism is alive and well.

Obama’s election brought out the Ku Klux Klan, a group that I had assumed died off sometime around the 60s. It seems that they’re alive and well, and that their ranks have surged with a black President. And it’s not just some strange people that none of us will ever meet. I’ve heard people express their disgust that we would elect an N-word to govern ourselves.

I also tend to think the same thing about Islamophobia. One’s religion now informs stereotypes about whether or not the person is a terrorist. There are all the people who didn’t vote for Obama because he was a Muslim. Besides the fact that it’s not even true, it’s disturbing. A while back I brushed up against someone calling for Obama’s assassination because he was a Muslim. (And yes, it was reported to the FBI.)

Now there’s a growing concern about growing size of the Ku Klux Klan and other openly-racist, often-violent white surpremacist groups, and the fact that they’re infiltrating our military. The media loves alarmist stories, but really, “Violent supremacist groups are joining the armed forces in record numbers” is about as good a cause for alarm as it gets.