We've seen racial tensions accelerate during the last eight years.

It is both sad and ironic that this occurred during the administration of the first African American president, but occur it did. However, it is possible that things are looking up.

Jason Riley takes a stroll through Harlem, the quintessential black neighborhood, and finds that many people there have an open mind and are willing to give the new president-elect a chance.  Let's hope that this is a harbinger of the lessening of racial tensions.

Riley describes the people he met:

“Hillary wasn’t strong enough. She didn’t fight enough,” said a gentleman leaving a drugstore, who introduced himself as Pace. “People saw her as weak and thought she’d be weak in the White House.” He also faulted Mrs. Clinton’s message. “She was talking about what she did in other countries as secretary of state. I can understand the situation around the world, but we live here.” Mr. Trump, in contrast, “was talking about the people who live here—the poor, the veterans.”

When I asked Pace, who retired from a job in dress manufacturing several years ago, if he thought Mr. Trump would ever win him over, he responded: “He said he’d protect Medicare. I can go along with that. He said he’d get rid of the Bloods and the Crips and the gangs—get them out of here. I like that. If he does those two things, he’s my man.”

Not everybody was quite as open as Pace, but enough people were to make us think that rank and file African Americans are not as bitterly hostile as imagined. Indeed, some of the vitriol may have been orchestrated:   

The anti-Trump demonstrations are in many cases organized and supported by people who make a living manufacturing outrage: Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, MoveOn.org, Showing Up for Racial Justice, the Equity Coalition. And the protests are likely to continue, off and on, at least until the president-elect’s inauguration.

Donald Trump made a stronger pitch for African-American support than many Republicans (thus infuriating Democrats, who are very possessive of black voters).

If the government can step aside and allow Americans to educate their kids, which often means charter schools, and business to create jobs, we will all be stronger together.

Of course, there also has to be a cessation of racial rhetoric, but this is likely to happen if the economy improves and people see a good future for their children. A lot is riding on the GOP, and they had better not blow it.