Just when I think Trump Derangement Syndrome cannot get any stronger, the New York Times publishes an opinion piece in support of segregation among children. That’s right. The 1960s are back and it isn’t any prettier than it was back then.

The author of the piece is Ekow N. Yankah. Mr. Yankah is a law professor, which, for me, is the most disturbing part of the whole piece. An educated black man, he holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Columbia University and Oxford University. Yankah is raising young sons with the belief that any potential white friend is not truly worthy of friendship. His justification for such racist logic is that it’s Trump’s America and President Trump is to blame for racial discord in today’s society.

Donald Trump’s election has made it clear that I will teach my boys the lesson generations old, one that I for the most part nearly escaped. I will teach them to be cautious, I will teach them suspicion, and I will teach them distrust. Much sooner than I thought I would, I will have to discuss with my boys whether they can truly be friends with white people.

The professor cynically blames Trump voters and supporters for the woes of black Americans. He ponders how black Americans can possibly trust white people who voted for Trump despite his personality flaws and blunt, dare I say politically incorrect, tone. He calls these people the “good” Trump voters. The “good Trump voters” support Trump because of policy reasons like on taxes or jobs creation despite Trump’s personal failings. Then he goes off the deep end.

The same is true, unfortunately, of those who hold no quarter for Mr. Trump but insist that black people need to do the reaching out, the moderating, the accommodating. Imagine the white friend during the civil rights era who disliked blacks’ being beaten to death but wished the whole thing would just settle down. However likable, you could not properly describe her as a friend. Sometimes politics makes demands on the soul.

Wow.

He tosses the white reader a bone, though, as he says a black person can “like” a white Trump supporter. There just can’t be any “real” friendship.

Frankly, the whole piece turns my stomach. What a twisted way to live. Politics has seeped into just about every aspect of life and now we are to give up any hope that those with differing political votes can truly be friends. He uses his young sons as an excuse for this bigoted behavior.

I was born in Mississippi and raised in Louisiana – commonly known as the Deep South. As a white woman of a certain age, I well remember civil rights violence and racial discord in my formative years. The bad old days are long gone and to say otherwise is to deny the decades of progress this country has made.

Professor Yankah describes himself as heartbroken. It breaks my heart that such perverse bigotry exists in 2017, especially in highly educated society. I can only image what he teaches in his classroom.

Karen Townsend is a guest author at Hot Air. You can read her other work at her Pondering Penguin blog. A longtime political blogger and activist, she enjoys writing about life and culture, too.