Racists React to Obama Victory
[Disclaimer: This article was e-mailed to me in the hopes that we remember that although we have come a long way there is still a long way to go. Hopefully the deplorable acts of a few will not spoil the progressive acts of the many]
By David Knowles
Nov 13th 2008 9:40AM
It should come as absolutely no surprise that, despite the historic election of the first African American president of the United States, the scourge of racism has not been magically wiped away from every nook and cranny of the country. Just dip your toes into the comment section of this, or any other blog that deals with politics and you’ll encounter plenty of it. Despite that regrettable fact, for those who lived through or have studied the milestones marking the advancement of blacks throughout our nation’s history, the seeming lack of racially-motivated clashes has been a noteworthy marker of how far we have come.
That said, just as many of us can feel proud of a country so enlightened that its majority can elect a minority to the highest office of the land, we must not shy away from the uncomfortable fact that a significant number of Americans dislike Obama based, first and foremost, on the color of his skin. By the way, that’s not the same as claiming that if you criticize Obama you are, by definition, a racist. I’m talking about that proud band of citizenry who’ll tell you openly of their disdain and fear of darker skin tones.
Now that the rush of excitement is starting to wane, a spate of media stories is shedding light on those people who wish history had not been made, would never be made, when it comes to black equality. So then, via Editor & Publisher, here’s a rogues round-up. An up-to-the-minute cataloging of that which we all know is out there, alive and well.
1. Yesterday, Tommy Christopher detailed the story of a bus load of Idaho elementary school tots chanting “Assassinate Obama! Assassinate Obama!”
2. In a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a high school teacher’s aide berated a bi-racial 16-year-old Obama supporter, with the following predictions:
“…[the aide] said that Obama was going to be shot and killed,” Mara Gilligan told KDKA News. ” And that our flag is going to be the KFC [Kentucky Fried Chicken] flag and that the new national anthem will be ‘Moving On Up’–and that all my daughter’s beliefs were wrong and her children’s lives were going to be ruined because Obama was elected.”
3. The Associated Press reports several cars in Long Island, New York, vandalized with anti-Obama messages, including promises to kill the president-elect.
4. At North Carolina State University, four students face expulsion for spay painting the phrases, “Let’s shoot that (N-word) in the head” and “Hang Obama by a noose.”
5. In Texas, Baylor University students awoke the morning after Obama’s victory to find a noose hanging from a tree in front of Morrison Hall.
6. In Maine, several black figures were found hanging from nooses on Mount Desert Island the day after Obama won.
7. California vandals went on a spray painting binge in Torrance, targeting cars with Obama bumper stickers. On one house the words “Go Back to Africa” were inscribed.
8. Of course, we all know of the Tennessee skinhead plot to kill random African Americans, and, with a wing and a prayer, Obama himself.
9. In Pennsylvania’s Apolacon Township, situated in an area known for KKK activity, an interracial couple looked out their front window to find the remnants of a burned cross.
10. Two men in the ironically named Friendsville, Pennsylvania were arrested for “racial intimidation and trespassing.”
These are but ten incidents. Thankfully, none resulted in physical violence.
November 16, 2008 Posted by sheilaj | culture, Education, Famous Names, Media, Race Relations, society | 2008 Election, African-Americans, America, Barack, Barack Obama, David, David Knowles, Equality, Hate Crime, history, KKK, Knowles, Milestones, Noose, Obama, Politics, race, racism, United States, Victory | 1 Comment
About
TIFFANI N. GARLIC blogs about media, news, and society on Common Cents at sheilaj.wordpress.com. She is a proud 2007 Livingston College graduate of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and earned her Master’s degree from the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism in 2009. She is particularly interested in issues of public health, access, social justice, and education.
Real Talk: The purpose of journalism is not to tell you what to think, but to tell you what to think about and then the rest is up to you. A professor once asked me why I was pursuing a Master’s degree in journalism when it seems as though print news is dying and all the topics are depressing. I said, “Because the more people know, the better equipped they will be to change all of that.”
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