WASHINGTON —It started with Mexicans being publicly accused by presidential candidate Donald Trump of being criminals and rapists. It escalated to ejections, to sucker punches, to pepper spray. And now violence and strife seems to be a commonplace occurrence out on the campaign trail.

As the 2016 presidential campaign turns toward the rapidly diversifying West, it has officially buried any thoughts of a post-racial United States, with racial and ethnic groups at the center of the most public strife seen in the political arena since the height of the civil rights movement.

Much of the violence has revolved around the ascendancy of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, first toward minorities and now by minorities protesting his policies. On Tuesday, protesters in New Mexico opposing Trump threw burning T-shirts, plastic bottles and other items at police officers, injuring several, and toppled trash cans and barricades. Police responded by firing pepper spray and smoke grenades into the crowd outside the Albuquerque Convention Center.

Karla Molinar, 21, a University of New Mexico student, participated in a planned disruption of Trump’s speech and said she had no choice because Trump is sparking hatred of Mexican immigrants. Trump, among other things, has called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States and declared that he will build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Trump is causing the hate to get worse,” she said.