Obama election spurs race crimes around country

[Terminator]

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."

[bayern]

Ah, but what about comments made by black towards whites about how Obama will "take care of them." You can bet your life savings, wife and children and all your guns that the media will never report them. If they do, whitie started it.

[Rhino]

I said "No", but I'd like to give a two-part answer:

1) Personally, I haven't seen nor heard of any "racially motivated" crimes since the election. I only heard of a couple- but they were initiated by blacks on whites for voting republican. Then there is the crime of the Black Panthers "guarding" voting places in PA with sticks.

2) Even if there is an increase in such crime- and I'm not doubting there is, I just haven't seen it- then Obama's victory isn't to blame. It's racist ignorant jerkwads who commit these crimes- no matter what color skin they have.

[Odd]

You know what, I'm sick of it. I'm not a Democrat and I'm not a Republican. I am what I think Goldwater would recognize as a conservative, but few since. (I'm not a "Compassionate Conservative" and I'm not whatever that was McCain ran on) Also I have wacky liberal friends I love and talk to. From them I first heard the whispers about Obama being assassinated. When the white supremacists were reported to have plotted to kill Barack they drew in breath and renewed their fears even louder - and I could have sworn I heard a "oh yeah, this supports what we were saying all along" as they drew that breath.

What conservative has ever advocated a racial backlash? What conservative in the media has fronted the idea Obama might be assassinated? Has a single one said he should be? Even though Bush is no conservative how many liberal voices have called for violence against him?

It's claimed a voice in the crowd at a Palin speech called for Obama's assassination, but I haven't heard the audio. Anyone have that in mp3?

James Carville may not have been playing with sock puppets this time, but he got his message through all the same. He was the primary promoter of the idea that there would be riots if McCain won (by stealing the election of course) and though those riots did not occur, even as Limbaugh helpfully (to Cavrille's strategy) predicted may happen with an Obama win, the strategy of fear and race baiting that lead up to this election carries on.

[CTR man]

I agree with you there Rhino, you hit the nail on the head.

Even though Rodney King may have done some stupid things in his life, I think he said it best here.

"Can't we all just get along."

What happened to Reginald Denny was uncalled for and deplorable.

[Captain America]

I pray to GOD that nothing happens President- Elect Obama. That would be one of worst things that could happen to this country no matter who was responsible.

[IndianaFuzz]

Rhino, CTR, Captain.....I'm with all three of you on this.

I haven't seen any racial backlash either way, yet. Hopefully I won't experience seeing it.

Though I do think its amazing how so many people forget that Obama is just as white as he is black. Though, you know what, it shouldn't matter what he is. I do think there is a sizable portion of this country that feels that it truly doesn't matter what Obama's race is. That, I think, is why he got elected, or more so maybe why he wasn't not-elected. Took a lot of white people voting for him to win it.

[countybear]

I pray to GOD that nothing happens President- Elect Obama. That would be the one of worst things that could happen to this country no matter who was responsible.

Agreed. We are at a critical point in our American endeavor, where nearly anyone who wished ill for our nation can act against a single person, and reasonably concieve to spark the masses' self-motivation into a violent frenzy.

Media stories like this one, though, only serve to accentuate the division, aggravate the fear-mongers, and publicize the dissent. "Hate-crimes", (and the centers for study of the concept), are a topic for another day though...

[Captain America]

Took a lot of white people voting for him to win it.

Or not being motivated by the fact that he is black( or semi-black) to even bother going to the polls and cast a vote against him.

[IndianaFuzz]

Media stories like this one, though, only serve to accentuate the division, aggravate the fear-mongers, and publicize the dissent. "Hate-crimes", (and the centers for study of the concept), are a topic for another day though...

Some people are never truly happy unless they have accord to bitch about, or discord to create. It's like they need conflict to feel alive.

[Retmilleo909]

I pray to GOD that nothing happens President- Elect Obama. That would be one of worst things that could happen to this country no matter who was responsible.

I too hope and pray that nothing happens to this new president elect, as I dread to think what mass chaos this country would witness if anything were to happen to him, whether here or on foreign soil. It would rock this country to it's very foundations and set it back a hundred years in time and racial relations..

[Cool Breeze]

I voted no. The only things I've heard is comments from black people directed at white people about how "it's their turn to suffer."

[Twan007]

Same - I've heard quite a few times from someone who's had cuffs put on them say "Obama'll take care of this"

I don't think it's brought more incidents - I think the incidents are more publicized b/c they're "news" now

[Jenna]

Same - I've heard quite a few times from someone who's had cuffs put on them say "Obama'll take care of this"

YouTube - South Park's Reaction To Obama's Election

[Retmilleo909]

Bitching and complaining will accomplish nothing...The campaign and election are over and the race has been won, and I for one will look at the future with optimism. Who knows, maybe Obama will get the economy back on track and the country out of the mess it's in. I'm willing to give him a chance and every benefit of the doubt and will back him all the way.