PHOENIX – A festival in Gilroy, California. A Walmart in El Paso, Texas. A bustling night spot in Dayton, Ohio.

The shootings followed much of the tragic, familiar pattern: Outpouring of grief for the victims, a search for a reason.

Investigators have said the motive in each case remains unclear, but the recent shootings raise new questions about whether victims were targeted — not for random violence or as the object of some perceived grudge — but because of their race or ethnicity.

While police in Gilroy say they still have yet to establish a definitive motive, the shooter is believed to have posted a reference to an 1890 novel that espouses racist ideology. Three people died in the attack, and more than 16 were wounded.

In El Paso, police say they believe the shooter, a white man, posted a hate-filled racist missive online and traveled to largely Hispanic El Paso to target his victims. In Dayton, most of the victims were black.

While the shootings would not be the first to target people for their race, they arrive at a time when the nation grapples with the idea of white nationalism, and with political tensions that have emerged from racist remarks and anti-immigrant rhetoric from the president and others.

El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles, in a post online, summed up the fear succinctly: "This Anglo man came here to kill Hispanics."

Those conclusions add a layer of shock to the national reaction, as some wonder whether more people will find themselves amid a shooting not just because of where they are, but who they are.

"As a brown person, a Latino in a mixed-race marriage, you do feel you have a target on your back," said Jaime Casap, a Phoenix resident and a nationally recognized education consultant in the tech industry.

Similar fears were echoed in El Paso. "The people who want to build a wall, the militia, recent visits from Steve Bannon and Donald Trump Jr. are attracting white supremacists to El Paso who might want to do us harm," said Cemelli de Aztlan.

Terror motive:FBI investigating Gilroy festival shooting as domestic terrorism attack

Who is the El Paso shooter?:Investigators search for links, motive in anti-immigrant screed

Rise of tensions

That America is becoming more diverse is well documented. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that racial and ethnic minorities will outnumber white people in 25 years.

That the tide of white nationalism is on the rise is also well documented. In 2015, the Southern Poverty Law Center documented 892 hate groups across the nation. In 2018, there were 1,015, a 14% increase in just three years.

Systemic violence against minority groups is ingrained in American history. Black people both during and after slavery were subject to mob justice and widespread violence. In the mostly forgotten 1919 "Red Summer" , historians believe, more than 250 African Americans were killed in at least 25 riots across the U.S. by white mobs that were never punished.

Fears of violence take on a new significance in an era of mass shooters with military-style weapons.

Casap said he is particularly concerned that the levels of rhetoric coming from the White House are emboldening racists.

But that could ultimately have a positive side to it.

"We've never taken on race in this country," Casap said. "If I told you in 2012 I was discriminated against, you'd say, 'Come on, we have a black president. We're past race.' Today, you'd believe me. It's out there, and now we need to deal with it."

He said one way of dealing with it is to call it what it is.

"The best news I heard all day is the FBI calling this (El Paso) domestic terrorism, because now you have to investigate where that came from and find its root causes."

Briana Valencia, a 22-year-old political science student at Glendale Community College, is part of the generation that has grown up with mass shootings as their reality.

Seemingly random shootings in movie theaters, schools and churches have taught her to look for escape routes whenever ever she goes out. She said she began avoiding large gatherings after a gunman killed 58 people and wounded 422 more at a music festival in Las Vegas two years ago.

After Saturday's massacre in El Paso, she feels even more vulnerable.

"Now, I'm even more on edge because I'm a Latina," she said. "I have a bigger target on my back."

"I can't really understand how someone can target someone just because they were born," she said. "I'm really scared something is going to happen here."

Nationally, the rhetoric turned against the shooter's apparent motivations but not always clearly.

At the White House Monday, President Donald Trump said, "Our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated."

But the same day, Trump tweeted that the shootings could help lead to "desperately needed immigration reform."

Blanca Chavira, an El Paso mom and Girl Scout leader, worries about the city going through another shooting incident.

"As they say, this does not define El Paso but we thought that this could never happen in El Paso and look how it happened in an instant," she said. "It is extremely scary."

She added, "We should not have to feel this way."

Rep. Daniel Hernandez, a Democrat who represents southern Arizona, said it was incumbent upon Republicans, particularly Gov. Doug Ducey and Republican U.S. Sen. Martha McSally, to take an active role in countering racist rhetoric.

"They need to do what John McCain and Jeff Flake did and say this is not acceptable. … We have good people. We need to stand up for our values," he said.

Administration response:Donald Trump suggests linking gun control legislation to immigration laws

However, Arizona state Rep. Jennifer Longdon, a Phoenix Democrat who is paralyzed from a gun violence incident 15 years ago, was unsure whether it's too late to find those better angels.

"I’m afraid we've crossed a Rubicon, and I don't think we can come back," she said by phone from Nashville, where she was attending a National Conference of State Legislators conference that included a workshop on gun violence.

"There was a time when this would happen and everything would stop. No one was willing to accept it. We've had two shootings in 18 hours, and the world hasn't stopped. Is this now part of our American fabric? Is this now who we are?"

Follow John D'Anna on Twitter: @azgreenday. Contributing: Maria Cortes Gonzalez, El Paso Times.