Election spurs 'hundreds' of race threats, crimes

By JESSE WASHINGTON – 1 day ago

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.

There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

One was in Snellville, Ga., where Denene Millner said a boy on the school bus told her 9-year-old daughter the day after the election: "I hope Obama gets assassinated." That night, someone trashed her sister-in-law's front lawn, mangled the Obama lawn signs, and left two pizza boxes filled with human feces outside the front door, Millner said.

She described her emotions as a combination of anger and fear.
"I can't say that every white person in Snellville is evil and anti-Obama and willing to desecrate my property because one or two idiots did it," said Millner, who is black. "But it definitely makes you look a little different at the people who you live with, and makes you wonder what they're capable of and what they're really thinking."

Potok, who is white, said he believes there is "a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them."

Grant Griffin, a 46-year-old white Georgia native, expressed similar sentiments: "I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.

"If you had real change it would involve all the members of (Obama's) church being deported," he said.

Change in whatever form does not come easy, and a black president is "the most profound change in the field of race this country has experienced since the Civil War," said William Ferris, senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina. "It's shaking the foundations on which the country has existed for centuries."

"Someone once said racism is like cancer," Ferris said. "It's never totally wiped out, it's in remission."

If so, America's remission lasted until the morning of Nov. 5.

The day after the vote hailed as a sign of a nation changed, black high school student Barbara Tyler of Marietta, Ga., said she heard hateful Obama comments from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about Obama's victory.

Tyler spoke at a press conference by the Georgia chapter of the NAACP calling for a town hall meeting to address complaints from across the state about hostility and resentment. Another student, from a Covington middle school, said he was suspended for wearing an Obama shirt to school Nov. 5 after the principal told students not to wear political paraphernalia.

The student's mother, Eshe Riviears, said the principal told her: "Whether you like it or not, we're in the South, and there are a lot of people who are not happy with this decision."

Other incidents include:

_Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head." Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.
_At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."
_Racist graffiti was found in places including New York's Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and "Go Back To Africa" were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.
_Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.
_University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said.
_Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.
_Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.
_A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'
_In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."

Emotions are often raw after a hard-fought political campaign, but now those on the losing side have an easy target for their anger.

"The principle is very simple," said BJ Gallagher, a sociologist and co-author of the diversity book "A Peacock in the Land of Penguins." "If I can't hurt the person I'm angry at, then I'll vent my anger on a substitute, i.e., someone of the same race."

"We saw the same thing happen after the 9-11 attacks, as a wave of anti-Muslim violence swept the country. We saw it happen after the Rodney King verdict, when Los Angeles blacks erupted in rage at the injustice perpetrated by 'the white man.'"

"It's as stupid and ineffectual as kicking your dog when you've had a bad day at the office," Gallagher said. "But it happens a lot."

Associated Press writers Errin Haines, Jerry Harkavy, Jay Reeves, Johnny Taylor and researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.

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I am not surprised but I don't think too much needs to be made of all the threats. Security for the President is 2nd to none and after 9/11, it has increased. When a woman becomes president the lunatics are going to loose their friggin mind!

"O'er the land of the free...."


indeed.

The world is full of assholes and they come in all colors and backgrounds. So what else is new?

No matter who won. The same thing would happen from either side of the fence. Not saying it's right though.

Like Curly said....

__________________
"Government isn't the solution to our problems. Government is the problem." - Ronald Reagan
"Time you can never get back but money you can always make." - My Wife

Yes I agree with both of you. Now that a few people have posted to this topic there's something I want to say.

A friend of mine posted this on another, more conservative board (most were for McCain) and I posted it here, which has a vocal liberal element. (I myself double-post most everything I find and enjoy the differences in the reactions.)

On the other board the responders were calling one of the extreme conservatives out to comment instead of commenting themselves. Very interesting. The topic starter called the article "Scary, very scary" but added no other comment. I got good feelings here from the 4 responders that posted.

One thing is clear to me - no matter how many people celebrated and are celebrating the outcome of this election, we really haven't come very far in being able to tolerate people different than ourselves. This problem transcends color - we just aren't very open to change even as we yell loudly that we want it.

I think that people are too primitive to mature. People have their innate biases. Some people won't see other than what they believe. Hell, people judge the next person by how they walk or dress or talk. Every has there views and beliefs. Sadly they push their ideals on others.

Ever meet someone you just didn't like? Even after you've conversed with them? That's the deep biases we have as a species. Some people take it to the deep end.

I kind of beg to differ. I know assholes come in all shapes and sizes and
colors, but if McCain had won the election, I just don't see people
reacting with out and out hate toward McCain if he had won. What, would
there be an increase in senior citizen jokes? This is a whole other level
of hate we are talking about here with Obama winning.

I'm not going to debate it further. I feel a certain way about this, and I'm
sure others have their own opinions as well.

Not saying this attitude is right, but there are black people I know who
think the idea of a black President does not necessarily erase over 200
years of oppression (again, I'm not saying I share their view that they are
"oppressed"), I'm just saying. So when you hear hate-filled stories like
in the article Rusty posted, at least for me, it really makes me wonder.

Nahhh Our last few years with Bush should show you that no politician has a free card when it comes to public ridicule and humiliation. We've reached an all-time low in how we treat people that we have elected. Ridicule and humiliation are hateful acts. Just because we all knew this would happen if Obama got elected, even as we hoped that it wouldn't, doesn't make it right I agree. I don't like it.

I just want to gently point out that I posted this article because it was in the news. The only way to combat hate is to give it sunshine and be honest about its existence. I always try to post good things too when I find them.

I only say this because I can feel the resistance to any post that is critical of Obama or Democrats here - especially when I read stuff like "hate-filled stories like in the article Rusty posted" or "I must say that the above post is extremely malicious" directed at one of my topics. I don't appreciate the nuances that go along with such statements.

I can only speak for myself. I personally don't care what anybody says
about Obama or his policies. I believe every politician is fair game. This
country was founded on ridicule of it's leaders.

But I just don't view racial hatred, as outlined in the article, through the
same lens as political ridicule. It's a different level, IMO. No two people
will agree on this, I know.

That's true bing. There are people who seriously want to hurt Obama for being half black.

What i mean by my statement is that people would cry foul no matter who won. Some people were so worked up into the election that they would be devastated to lose. Like if Obama lost. IMHO people could have pitched a royal bitch. Maybe not want to kill Mccain. But attempt to force the electoral process a bit. Maybe even turn a car over or two.

I don't see Obama as a symbol of equality. Some people do.... I see a man who has a helluva job to do...

Therein lies the problem. Viewing any person as a symbol of equality. I
know a lot of people do that, and I know our country preaches equality,
but, call me negative, I just don't think equality exists. And I certainly
don't think a government can "provide" equality. Now true, the government
should ensure a fair playing field, and then people can fend for
themselves. But to try and say, "Hey Obama is President, we are equal
now", is just a little short-sighted.

Not every player on a hockey team can score a goal... but everyone has
a role to play. The goal scorers get more ice time,... is that fair and equal?
No, it's not. But if your team wins, no one cries about equality.
(and my wife thinks I can't learn anything important from sports...)

now I'm way off on a tangent...

That's my opinion too.

Great point. I haven't thought of it that way....

I could have been more brief by quoting the line in Caddyshack...

"The world needs ditch-diggers too"

I am of the opinion that most of the assholes spewing this hate, are talking out of their ass. They actually don't have the will or knowhow to carry it out (talk is cheap anyway). Yes, Presidents have been assanated, 1 successful and two attempts in my lifetime, and it could happen, but the vast majority of people who voted are law abiding good people, who might disagree at times but wish no harm to anyone. I am not happy with the results of the election but should something happen I would be very upset as would everyone here, I am guessing.

GREAT post! Same here.

I disagree. As it stated in the article,

"There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes."

I hate to say it but I think that this is going to get worse before it gets better.

And Bill;
As Lee Harvey Oswald showed. It only takes one.

But same for me as far as anyone in the U.S. coming to harm. My candidate may not have won, but violence towards U.S. citizens is not the answer.

Personally, IMHO, the media is going to publish any type of threat against Obama because he IS black. It sells newspapers. In the article it says:"There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election,. Guess what? There are hundreds of threats against any president in any given time. You just don't hear about them. It's the media, once again trying to keep the race issue alive and well. You take all those threats for what ever reason and now throw the "black" reason on top. It's a few hundred assholes who don't even come close to representing how the nation feels as a whole. Don't get me wrong, I'm not making light of the situation, I just think the media will be turning over every stone to get stories like this to say "see, we're doomed". I just hope the secret service is on their toes.

I hope I'm making sense.

Point taken Curly. Who knows what else goes on and we don't know
about it because it's not the "in" story.

The fringe elements of society always seem to make the news.