After the horrendous acts of violence and racism in Charlottesville, V.A. this past week, there has been a haze of confusion and anger hovering over the United States. As a college student

living in a time where there is more hatred now than there has been in the past decade, there is only one truth, and it's that is we, as a nation, are moving backwards.

Former President Barack Obama, brought on a sense of equality for all genders, identities, sexual orientations, races, religions, and belief systems. He welcomed protests and opinions with grace, even when they were against him - which is something the current President would never do, but he would most definitely condemned those who pursued such topics with hatred and violence, especially topics that promote ethnic cleansing and racism - old and evil ideals that caused deaths of many innocent people.

The protests in Charlottesville went too far. With one young woman, Heather Heyer, dead and many others injured, violence ran rampant and hatred filled the streets. This caused the current President, Donald Trump, to of course speak out.

He failed to successfully condemn the hateful acts of the white supremacists and Neo-Nazis, and remained fairly vague, until he released his second statement during his scheduled conference that was originally in regards to infrastructure in Trump Tower - which was even more appalling.

During this conference, the topic derailed and he went rogue, again. This time around he managed to insult millions of Americans and promote the actions of those who hate, fight, and protest unification.

Not only did Trump state that there are "two sides to the story" and that "both sides are to blame", he also managed to throw in some negative and backhanded comments about almost every single press person there.

My fear is simple. It's that after all of these years with presidents who supported minorities and knew when to bite their tongue, we have someone in office that promotes hatred and evil in the worst sense, someone who will hit the metaphorical rewind button and take us back to the 1950s and 1960s, where everyone was afraid of a nuclear war and riots. We have someone who wouldn't speak out against the hate groups until 3 days later, someone who would then blame both sides of protest, and basically saying "What about the radical leftists?". When things like this slip out of his mouth, he is telling nearly the entire world that he does not care about you.

He is only appealing to those who voted for him. Those who support themselves and only themselves, those who think that if there's a Black Lives Matter, there should be a White Lives Matter; those who think certain groups have less of a right to pursue happiness than themselves.

Trump is racist and it's that simple - and racists are who put him in office, so the fact that he didn't directly condemn the racists who took over Charlottesville because he doesn't want to lose his loyal, idiotic supporters, isn't surprising. And this doesn't only include Republicans, it's more complex than just Republicans - more Republican officials spoke out against the protests better than Mr. President did - his supporters are those who think that they have been "left out" in the past, supporters who live in the rural area away from the cultural world, supporters who see race as hierarchy and that they are somehow cheated in this world.

The reason why the "left" protested is because the white supremacists and Neo-Nazis came to fight, they came prepared dressed in old militia uniforms and shouting harsh, racist words. Both parties are not to blame. One party is to blame, and unfortunately, the President is also to blame. He makes these people feel comfortable to say whatever they want and do whatever they want, and after this statement the head of the KKK thanked him. HE THANKED DONALD TRUMP. Trump lets the evil run rampant in this world and all he's focusing on is money, who he's fighting, his pride, while completely disregarding the fact that there is an entire country to worry about, not just those who voted for Trump and who paid for Trump's campaign.

When he got elected I knew that we would move backwards, and I knew that he would promote hatred and everything nasty in the world. Now I know that these premonitions were correct. We are moving in the wrong direction and fast, and until Trump is out - and he needs to leave - we will continue to move in this direction. It's our job as peace-loving, accepting people to fight that movement.