Obama Election Spurs "Hundreds" of Racist Incidents Around Country

Cross-burnings, threats, racial epithets, assault, a church burned down. These are just a few of the racist incidents that have occurred across the country since Obama's historic victory two weeks ago. Here are some specific examples that give a sense of the scope of this outbreak of racist hate:

* At the Standish, Maine, Oak Hill General Store, an Associated Press reporter saw a sign inviting customers to join a betting pool on when Obama might fall victim to an assassin.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."

* In Idaho, the Secret Service is investigating a "public hanging" sign erected by a man upset with the election outcome, the Bonner County Daily Bee reported Thursday. A handmade sign posted on a tree reads "FREE PUBLIC HANGING" written in large letters beneath a noose fashioned from nylon rope. The most prominent name on the sign is "OBAMA," according to the Bee. "That's a political statement. They can call it whatever they want, a threat or whatever," the creator of the sign, Ken Germana, told the Bee.

* A popular white supremacist Web sites got more than 2,000 new members the day after the election, compared with 91 new members on Election Day. The site, stormfront.org, was temporarily off-line on Nov. 5 because of the overwhelming amount of activity it received. One poster, identified as Dalderian Germanicus, of North Las Vegas, said, "I want the SOB laid out in a box to see how 'messiahs' come to rest."

* From the Orange County (Ca.) Register: "Two gang members pleaded not guilty Thursday to hate crime and attempted robbery charges in connection with the beating of a black man who was trying to buy cigarettes at a Fullerton liquor store." The two men shouted racial and anti-Obama epithets in the attack.

* From today's New York Times: "Two white Staten Island men face hate crimes charges after they were arrested on Friday in the beating of a black teenager on the night that Barack Obama was elected president, the police said on Saturday. The teenager, Alie Kamara, 17, was walking home on Pine Place in the Staten Island neighborhood of Stapleton when several men hit him on the head with a baseball bat and yelled 'Obama,' said Aliya Latif, the civil rights director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who was in contact with Alie's family since the attack and spoke to his mother on Saturday after the arrests were announced."

* In Mississippi alone, the American Civil Liberties Union has received more than 10 calls since the staff first reported anti-Obama incidents last Friday, according to the Jackson (Miss.) Free Press.

* In Midland, Mich., a man dressed in full Ku Klux Klan regalia walked around toting a handgun and waving an American flag. Initially denying it, the man eventually admitted to police that the display was a reaction to the Obama victory. "[The man] had a concealed weapon permit and was walking up and down the sidewalk in front of a vehicle dealership while some motorists shouted obscenities at him and others shouted accolades," police told The Saginaw News.

* Parents in Rexburg, Idaho, contacted school officials this week after they learned that 2nd and 3rd graders on a school bus were chanting, "Assasssinate Obama!"

* At the University of Texas in Austin, a racist post on Facebook has cost one student his place on the university football team, according to the Houston Chronicle. Buck Burnette, a sophomore offensive lineman for the fourth-ranked Texas Longhorns, was dismissed from the team on Nov. 5 after posting a racist remark about President-elect Obama as his "status" on the social networking Web site. Burnette posted: "All the hunters gather up, we have a [slur] in the White House," the Chronicle reported.

* AP reports: "While the world watched a Grant Park celebration heralding the election of the first black U.S. president, some white Chicago police officers committed hate crimes against black residents cheering Barack Obama's victory elsewhere in the city, attorneys alleged Thursday." Lawsuits have been filed.

* At Appalachian State University, the administration has expressed disappointment at the numerous times black students have expressed being harassed in residence halls since the election. The Appalachian, a student newspaper serving the university, also reported conversations suggesting Obama may not be alive in 2009 and a t-shirt seen around campus that reads "Obama '08, Biden '09."

* Mentioned in the same article, racist comments were discovered at North Carolina State University last week. Spray-painted in university's free expression tunnel after the election were the phrases, "Kill that nigger," "Let's shoot that nigger in the head" and "Shoot Obama," the Appalachian reported. The NAACP has called for the expulsion of the four students accused of the graffitti, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.

* The Associated Press revealed on Wednesday, "Police on eastern Long Island are investigating reports that more than a dozen cars were spray painted with racist graffiti, reportedly including a message targeting President-elect Barack Obama. The graffiti included racist slurs and sexually graphic references. At least one resident in the quiet Mastic neighborhood told Newsday her son's car was scribbled with a message threatening to kill Obama."

* Employees at Hampel's Key and Lockshop in Traverse City, Michigan, flew an American flag upside down last Wednesday protesting of the new president-elect, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported. One worker used a racial slur during an interview with the Record-Eagle: "(The inverted flag is) an international signal for distress and we feel our country is in distress because the n----- got in," said Hampel's employee Rod Nyland, who later apologized for the comment, according to the Record-Eagle.

* Authorities in Temecula, Calif., found spray-painted graffiti on a city sidewalk containing a swastika and anti-Obama slogan. And from the Los Angeles Times: "Vandals spray-painted swastikas and racial slurs on a house and several cars in Torrance that displayed campaign signs or bumper stickers for President-elect Barack Obama, authorities said Tuesday. The incidents occurred Saturday night in the Hollywood Riviera section of the city, said Sgt. Bernard Anderson. Four separate incidents were reported the next day, he said. No arrests have been made."

* And from Maine: "More than 75 people rallied Sunday against an incident last week in which black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island the day after Barack Obama won the presidential election," according to the Bangor Daily News.

* 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."

This website is keeping track of incidents.

And there is other evidence that hate-crimes are on the rise in NY, not just against African Americans, but also against Latino immigrants. Here is one particularly appalling example:


Well, this isn't all that surprising, given our nation's tragic racial past, the long history of white backlash following moments of racial progress, and the way Obama's opponents exploited racial divisions in a series of desperate last-ditch efforts to save their campaigns. Even so, we must call this stuff out when it occurs and stand together publicly to condemn it.

What has been your experience, post election?

Shirley Nagle, Meanie!

In a move that pretty much sums up the grumpy old campaign of McCain/Palin, an affluent resident of Gross Pointe Farms, Michigan, Shirley Nagle, refused to give candy to children of Obama supporters on Halloween. Seriously. Check it out:

Make her day by helping this video go viral. Pass the link to as many folks as possible...

An "Idiot Wind": The New McCarthyism

In desperation, as his campaign bottoms out, John McCain has abandoned any shred he had left of dignity, honor, integrity and conscience.

Here is the latest attempt to smear Obama through the McCarthyite tactic of "guilt by association": for several days, the McCain camp and its surrogates have been in a tizzy trying to link the Democratic nominee with the foreign-sounding name to a prominent (American) Middle East scholar with a foreign sounding name, Rashid Khalidi. Of course, this is simply the latest in a not-so-subtle attempt to "other" Obama in the minds of white voters. Note the emphasis from Rethugs on Khalidi's Middle East connections, his Arab? Muslim? sounding name, his links to so-called terrorist groups (the P.L.O., in this case), suggestions that he is anti-semitic and violent for voicing criticism of recent Israeli governments, and even claims that he is a neo-Nazi!

Here is Michael Goldfarb, a right-wingnut blogger and McCain surrogate (and general jack-ass), getting embarassed on CNN after throwing around unsubstantiated charges of anti-semitism-by-association against Obama, which he cannot back up:

Yet, despite this ugliness from the McCain campaign, there are some hopeful signs: McCain is getting some serious push-back now from the media on this latest exercise in the low politics of hate and division.

For instance, in response to the above episode, Joe Klein wrote,

Here we have the McCain campaign’s execrable Michael Goldfarb slinging around accusations of anti-semitism—a favorite pastime, as we’ve seen this year, among Jewish neoconservatives.

Andrew Sullivan agreed, writing:

Michael Goldfarb, McCain spokesman, accuses Barack Obama of hanging around with anti-Semites – plural – on CNN. Asked to name one other anti-Semite other than his allegation about Rashid Khalidi, he can’t. He won’t. But he leaves it hanging, refusing to disown or retract the charge. This is pure McCarthyism. And it is the rotten core of McCain.

And Jo-Ann Mort commented:

It has come to this--the red baiting and the nastiness of the McCain/Palin campaign, in desperation to get Jewish support, is now baiting and bad-mouthing a notable Palestinian-American historian, Rashid Khalidi, for his and his wife's friendship with Obama. The Khalidi's know Obama from their time in Hyde Park, when Rashid was a professor at the University of Chicago.

Now at Columbia University, he is someone who has always reached out to all sides in the debate about the future of Israel and Palestine. He has been outspoken in his arguments against Arafat's ways of governing and terrorism and when he was at U of C, he was close to Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, one of the most important American Jewish figures of our time. For the Republicans to go after him is pure vial--they think that the Jewish vote is so stupid and racist that they will turn away from the Democrats solely on this type of slander. For someone like Daniel Pipes, quoted in today's New York Times story, to call him 'marginal,' is a joke. It's time to move the Center back to the Center--let's hope that happens as of November 5--for the sake of America, the sake of Israel and the sake of Palestine.

This morning, The Washington Post published a scathing editorial hammering John McCain over the Khalidi issue. Titled, "An 'Idiot Wind,'" the editors called this latest of McCain's "increasingly reckless ad hominem attacks" "a vile smear" and praised Obama as "a man of considerable intellectual curiosity who can hear out a smart, if militant, advocate for the Palestinians without compromising his own position. To suggest, as Mr. McCain has, that there is something reprehensible about associating with Mr. Khalidi is itself condemnable -- especially during a campaign in which Arab ancestry has been the subject of insults." Amen.

Similarly, over at Harper's, Scott Horton writes about the Khalidi smear, particularly an article at the conservative National Review by Andrew McCarthy, as a part of "the New McCarthyism." Horton acknowledges that the last weeks of presidential campaigns often see a lot of negativity, but that this year "the process has gotten nuttier and more malicious than usual." Horton knows Khalidi. Here is the portrait he paints:

This doesn’t sound much like the Rashid Khalidi I know. I’ve followed his career for many years, read his articles and books, listened to his presentations, and engaged him in discussions of politics, the arts, and history. In fact, as McCarthy’s piece ran, I was midway through an advance copy of Khalidi’s new book Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East. (I’ll be reviewing it next month–stay tuned.) Rashid Khalidi is an American academic of extraordinary ability and sharp insights. He is also deeply committed to stemming violence in the Middle East, promoting a culture that embraces human rights as a fundamental notion, and building democratic societies. In a sense, Khalidi’s formula for solving the Middle East crisis has not been radically different from George W. Bush’s: both believe in American values and approaches. However, whereas Bush believes these values can be introduced in the wake of bombs and at the barrel of a gun, Khalidi disagrees. He sees education and civic activism as the path to success, and he argues that pervasive military interventionism has historically undermined the Middle East and will continue to do so. Khalidi has also been one of the most articulate critics of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority—calling them repeatedly on their anti-democratic tendencies and their betrayals of their own principles. Khalidi is also a Palestinian American. There is no doubt in my mind that it is solely that last fact that informs McCarthy’s ignorant and malicious rants.

And here is John Judis of the New Republic on the subject:


Josh Marshall, of TPM, sums it up this way:

For McCain, personally, to compare Khalidi to a neo-nazi, it's just an offense McCain should never be forgiven for. It's right down in the gutter with Joe McCarthy and the worst of the worst. Khalidi is in this new McCain set piece for one reason -- as a generic Arab, to spur the idea that Obama is foreign, friendly with terrorists and possibly Muslim.

Let me underscore that Khalidi is American-born and Ivy educated and while his ideas are controversial to some (by the way, just about anyone who writes seriously and complexly about the Middle East is "controversial to some"), Khalidi is a complex, well-respected scholar of the Middle-East who advocates an end to violence there through a mediated solution. In fact, he has been involved, formally, in various peace negotiations.

Let me also write that underlying the obvious slime of this and other attacks is a profound, on-going assault on academic freedom, the free-flow of ideas in our democratic society and the whole idea of intellectualism. (Note how "well" this anti-intellectual philosophy has worked out over the last 8 years with the Boy Idiot King in charge of things in the U.S. Uh... not so good.) For a long time now, conservatives have played the anti-intellectual/anti-academia card in order to rally a populist, anti-elitist base to their thoroughly elitist economic policies. They demonize the very idea that it might make some sense to have folks with some know-how on an issue involved with that issue in government. They attack the notion that a studied knowledge of a subject is a good thing in government. And, this is the way of authoritarians: they rule with an iron fist, scared of any and all competing ideas, frightened at intellectual honesty and complexity, and so they move to crush it. They do not have faith in the power of their own ideas over competing ones, because the ideas they espouse are undemocratic and largely bankrupt.

It is important for all of us, every citizen, to understand that fundamental to institutions of higher education is the principle of academic freedom. The idea is that campuses are places where all kinds of ideas can get a hearing and be discussed, challenged and turned over openly and publicly, or in the mediated forum of a classroom. Campuses are places where competing ideas are pit against one another and students and the public alike are encouraged to engage them, grapple with them, and make decisions and judgments for themselves. This is the work we do, regardless of discipline, in academia. We are charged with developing young minds and helping them to critically assess all kinds of ideas and make informed judgments, based on evidence. This is the root of critical thinking and citizenship in a democracy, too! We have faith, on campus and in democracy, that the best ideas will win out in the end, if this free flow is unencumbered, if people have access to information and if they are equipped with some basic skills.

Like the 1st amendment, academic freedom means the most when it is extended to those opinions and views we might not agree with. It is here where we must be most vigilant in defending intellectual freedom.

I hope you will stand with me to defend academic freedom, the free flow of ideas and our basic liberties in the United States. If we do not, our democracy is truly imperiled...

More Racist Shit from Ohio...

Another Dumb-Ass in Ohio

Good lord. It is increasingly embarrassing to admit that I grew up in Cleveland...

Tell McCain to Stop the Hate!

From Brave New Films and Color of Change:

They also have a petition, which states:

Dear Senator McCain and Governor Palin,

Time and again in America, people of all races and backgrounds have overcome division and fear, and come together to uplift the country and create a more equal and just society. It's part of what makes this country great.

With an African-American nominee running on a major party ticket and a woman on the Republican ticket for the first time in history, this campaign has seen Americans--men and women of all races--inspired to continue that great tradition, coming together to bridge the gaps that history has set between us in service of our national progress.

But let us be clear: while we have made great strides in this country when it comes to racial equality, we are not finished. Now, more than ever, we need leadership that understands that we live in complex times where too many are quick to judge another by the complexion of their skin or the sound of their name.

In the last few weeks, Senator McCain and Governor Palin, rhetoric at your campaign events has taken an increasingly dangerous tone that seems to ignore the precarious state of our progress when it comes to race and ethnicity.

Supporters at your rallies and other events have used hateful language and called for violence against Sen. Obama yelling "kill him!" "off with his head!" and "bomb Obama."

For the most part, you have stood by in silence. In addition, you have also repeatedly made statements that somehow connect Senator Obama with terrorism. Your surrogates have emphasized his middle name. This is problematic and dangerous, and we believe helps create the conditions that have given rise to these incidents of violent rhetoric from some of your supporters.

Today, we're standing together as Americans of all political persuasions to express our deep concern that the decisions of your campaign are contributing to a dangerous atmosphere of paranoia, division, and hate that, as we have already seen, has the potential to seriously harm our country and its progress.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

In these trying times, candidates seeking the highest offices in the land must call on the best in each of us, and call off the worst.

We urge you to join people of conscience from all races and backgrounds to reject the politics of division and fear, and come together to uplift the country and create a more equal and just society.

-- The undersigned --

Sign it here. Spread the word...

Civil Rights Legend John Lewis Slams McCain/Palin Politics of Hate and Division

John Lewis, one of the great living legends of the civil rights era and a TRUE American hero, slammed the McCain/Palin ticket today for their role in stirring up increasingly hateful and racialized sentiments at their rallies over the last several days. Lewis, who participated in sit-ins, Freedom Rides and the historic voting rights campaign in Selma, and who now represents Georgia in Congress, said:

"As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign," Lewis said in a statement. "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse."

He continued:

"During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama," said Lewis.

Lewis concluded with a wanring:

"As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better."

In response, the McCain campaign lamely attacked Lewis, a man McCain has previously called one of the "wisest" in Congress:

Congressman John Lewis' comments represent a character attack against Governor Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale. The notion that legitimate criticism of Senator Obama's record and positions could be compared to Governor George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign. I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I've always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track.

I call on Senator Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America.

Obama issued this statement:

Senator Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies. But John Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night, as well as the baseless and profoundly irresponsible charges from his own running mate that the Democratic nominee for President of the United States 'pals around with terrorists.' As Barack Obama has said himself, the last thing we need from either party is the kind of angry, divisive rhetoric that tears us apart at a time of crisis when we desperately need to come together. That is the kind of campaign Senator Obama will continue to run in the weeks ahead.

More Lunatics for McCain/Palin

This time, they are in Bethlahem, PA:

This is shameful. The fact that McCain and Palin stoke these flames and don't forcefully repudiate them is even more shameful than the actual comments. To trade in this stuff is dangerous...

Best Comeback Evah!

As everyone now knows, in Governor Sarah Palin's cynical, hypocritical, sarcastic, holier-than-thou, deceitful and at times downright mean speech last night and the RNC, the radical conservative evangelical belittled Barack Obama's service as a community organizer. The comment was intensely elitist and condescending, not to mention that it sullied the work and reputations of thousands of good, decent, caring and compassionate people throughout our country, in small towns and big cities, who have been on the front lines in various struggles for equality, justice and dignity for poor people, women, people of color, workers, the elderly, the homeless, the hungry, etc. I'll probably write more on this later, but for now, I think this has got to be the absolutely BEST comeback that I have seen (it appeared as a comment at Andrew Sullivan's blog. Listen up Governor Palin:

“Jesus was a Community Organizer, and Pontias Pilate was a Governor."

Cut, paste and forward it to all of your friends. Make bumper stickers and t-shirts. The folks at the RNC, ALMOST ALL OF WHOM ARE WHITE, are really mean-spirited and divisive. It was ugly in there. Please reject this kind of politic. Tell your neighbors to do the same. Talk about it. EXPRESS YOURSELF. ACT. The last 7+ years have been terrible. 4-8 years of these folks will be completely unbearable! As Barack said last Thursday, "We, as a nation, are better than that."

UPDATE: This is why I dig Obama. Great comeback to the whole community organizer smear:
Pass it around...