In Trump's America, NFL players are targeted with racist messages

For anyone who still thought sports was a bubble where you could avoid the world's real problems, painful evidence to the contrary emerged again this week.

Two NFL players showed they were targeted with racist, hate-filled messages by -- well, we certainly won't call them fans.

First up is New York Giants fullback Nikita Whitlock, whose home was broken into by intruders who scrawled racist graffiti on the walls, including a swastika, "Fucking n*****" and "KKK."

Then there was the message graffiti'd near a stairwell: "Trump."

"I’m one of the last people you think this would happen to,” Whitlock told NorthJersey.com. "I’m in a nice area, I make good money, I keep to myself, and I’m not flashy. … Instead of coming close to home they came inside. I have a lot of peers and a lot of family and people in my circle who don’t believe these kinds of things can happen to them or to me or to us. Everybody thinks 'Oh, wow, that was close to home' because it was in your town or it was in the city next to you. We’re not the only ones affected by this."

He shared a couple photos on Instagram.

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Whitlock certainly isn't alone -- the Southern Poverty Law Center says racist incidents are on the rise since Donald Trump was elected last month.

He's not even alone among NFL players.

Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall on Friday shared a letter that was sent to him via team headquarters. The letter's writer called him a "worthless fucking n*****," a "porch monkey," told him to "go back to the jungle" and more.

It also included a veiled threat: "Your time is coming, watch out n*****!"

Marshall shared a photo of the letter on Instagram.

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This sort of abuse isn't restricted to the sports world -- rather, it reflects how racists in general have become emboldened in 2016. The vileness that targeted Marshall and Whitlock represents something happening right now in American society at large, something the Southern Poverty Law Center and others have been tracking.

Here's another frightening look -- one that also emerged just this week -- at this dynamic playing out beyond the sports world.

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Marshall may have been targeted because he was one of the first NFL players to join San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in kneeling during the national anthem before games this season. The silent, peaceful protests that have spread across the sports world over the past few months are intended to spotlight the mistreatment of minorities, particularly black people, in America.

Marshall's silent protest may have enraged the racist who sent him that angry letter. But the bitter irony is that in doing so the writer only proved Marshall's point and further validated his protests.