The expectation that some whites have for Donald Trump isn’t hard to identify. From overt statements about Mexican judges, building a massive wall, and blocking immigration, to the traditional keywords of Republican candidates—law and order, inner cities, urban problems—when making not-so-oblique references to repressing blacks, Trump has given whites every indication that they are his only constituency.

The whole theme of the Trump campaign is easily to interpret as a call to restore a sort of American Apartheid—Jim Crow 2.0—in which blacks, immigrants, and Jews just better watch it. It’s no wonder that white supremacists are optimistic about a Trump presidency. And it’s also no wonder that Trump’s name has become a mantra for those giving a not so subtle “just you wait.”

The chant erupts in a college auditorium in Washington, as admirers of a conservative internet personality shout down a black protester. It echoes around the gym of a central Iowa high school, as white students taunt the Hispanic fans and players of a rival team. It is hollered by a lone motorcyclist, as he tears out of a Kansas gas station after an argument with a Hispanic man and his Muslim friend. Trump Trump Trump

Trump’s name has taken the place of traditional racist terms of contempt. It not only contains the weight of derision, but also the strength of a warning. Trump is coming. Then you’ll get yours.

In countless collisions of color and creed, Donald J. Trump’s name evokes an easily understood message of racial hostility. Defying modern conventions of political civility and language, Mr. Trump has breached the boundaries that have long constrained Americans’ public discussion of race.

Breached them, torn them open, and wallowed in the wreckage. Trump is running on a building wave of racism, sucking in the adulation and returning promises of a society saturated in racial bias.