The Hate Vote.
This from the Associated Press:
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.
-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.
-Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported.
-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."
You will also find stories about this in the Chicago Tribune and the Times of London, among others.
Anyone who claims that the election of Barack Obama means anything like the end of American racism is either delusional or dishonest. For this minefield we have many people to thank: The planters who figured that a bloody slave economy on purloined New World land would work just fine if they could muster a race-based explanation; the white slavers and the black African kidnappers who supplied them; the political preachers who picked up the racist gospel; the George Wallaces and Michael Savages and Rush Limbaughs who, in their own ways, have pimped off of ethnic fear and rage; and the kicked-around poor and working whites who lap up mass-produced hatred as a tonic for poverty and insecurity.
The only thing new about today's race-hate news is that spazzed-out whites now have another level of racial progress of which to be terrified: the election of a black president. As in the 1860s and the 1960s, fair-minded people in 2008 celebrate triumph -- while we also need to be prepared to deal with those who can't yet cope with it.
Are you ready?
Thanks to Herschel for the heads up.
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