Election spurs 'hundreds' of race threats, crimes

[John81]

(I wonder how much of this is real and how much is hype. It's interesting how the media ignored groups of Black Panthers and NOI who have been involved in "racist" activities and how the media is ignoring how some groups of blacks are now gloating that it's their turn to "get whitey".)


Election spurs 'hundreds' of race threats, crimes

AP 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."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081115/ap_ ... ama_racial

[Charbo]

While some of this is surely happening it is not to the epidemic proportions the lamestream media would like for us to believe. In fact, there is probably just as much, if not more, racial hatred toward whites.

[John81]

I have no doubt when one gets in or around the cities the racial hatred of blacks towards whites is far greater, far more out in the open, and even far more of a threat.

[LAF]

I have no doubt when one gets in or around the cities the racial hatred of blacks towards whites is far greater' date=' far more out in the open, and even far more of a threat.[/quote']


Yes I belive that also

[BlessedChristianlady8]

The black panthers has been doing this for years. I can understand thier anger at us white folks because of slavery and calling them names. I am not offended by the term Whitey. We need to try to become one and I guess thats not going to happen.

[HappyChristian]

The black panthers has been doing this for years. I can understand thier anger at us white folks because of slavery and calling them names. I am not offended by the term Whitey. We need to try to become one and I guess thats not going to happen.

KJVK - unfortunately, people like the black panthers do not want us to become one. And, I am sorry, but I owe them nothing for slavery. Slavery is over, here in America. To continue to use it as an excuse for hatred is simply stirring up trouble.

Their anger should really be towards those who are manipulating the blacks to believe that they are downtrodden. Look around - there are many blacks in prominent positions, like Clarence Thomas, Condoleeza Rice, and now Barack Obama. Michael Steele is trying for the chairmanship of the GOP - he is a black man. There are many others.

My sister-in-law despises the attitude that a great majority of black people have - that white people owe them. BTW - she is black.

[Charbo]

KJVK - unfortunately, people like the black panthers do not want us to become one. And, I am sorry, but I owe them nothing for slavery. Slavery is over, here in America. To continue to use it as an excuse for hatred is simply stirring up trouble.

Their anger should really be towards those who are manipulating the blacks to believe that they are downtrodden. Look around - there are many blacks in prominent positions, like Clarence Thomas, Condoleeza Rice, and now Barack Obama. Michael Steele is trying for the chairmanship of the GOP - he is a black man. There are many others.

My sister-in-law despises the attitude that a great majority of black people have - that white people owe them. BTW - she is black.

Can't really add to that.

[HappyChristian]

I wanted to add that, despite the fact that I abhor BO's policies and associations, and what I know he will do to America, I think it's horrid that anyone would advocate his assassination. And to think that a young boy would say it - it's obvious he is hearing it at home. That's sad. FWIW - there have always been people who hated whoever is elected president. And horrible things have been said. But because BO is black, it will get more notice from the media.

[John81]

KJVK - unfortunately, people like the black panthers do not want us to become one. And, I am sorry, but I owe them nothing for slavery. Slavery is over, here in America. To continue to use it as an excuse for hatred is simply stirring up trouble.

Their anger should really be towards those who are manipulating the blacks to believe that they are downtrodden. Look around - there are many blacks in prominent positions, like Clarence Thomas, Condoleeza Rice, and now Barack Obama. Michael Steele is trying for the chairmanship of the GOP - he is a black man. There are many others.

My sister-in-law despises the attitude that a great majority of black people have - that white people owe them. BTW - she is black.

I'm not responsible for ANY past slavery and no black American today has ever been a slave. Making excuses to be angry, hate and verbally or physically attack people doesn't make it understandable or right.