Nov. 15, 2008
Post-Racial USA? Not So Fast
Obama's Election Spurs Widespread Vitriol; Children Chant "Assassinate Obama"
-
-
This photo provided to the Associated Press by Gary and Alina Grewal of Hardwick Township, N.J., shows a charred cross that had been burned on the lawn of their home. The Grewals placed a banner in their yard congratulating President-elect Barack Obama on his election victory. They found the banner wrapped around the charred cross Nov. 6, 2008. (AP PHOTO)
-
The election of Sen. Barack Obama has spurred a series of racist acts and hate crimes around the country, police and academic experts say. (CBS)
-
-
Who's Who World Reaction For many, Barack Obama's election seals America's reputation as a land of opportunity.
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:
Quote
Someone once said racism is like cancer. It's never totally wiped out; it's in remission.
William Ferris, Center for the Study of the American SouthEmotions 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."
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBSNews.com On Digg
More From U.S.
Add a Comment See all 534 Comments
- i have something for you http://niconotnow.blogspot.com/
- Reply to this comment
- These remarks are not for those of us who know better. On a spiritual note, for whatever reasons, and however it has happened, people of various so-called races, ethnic groups etc. have been thrown together. This has obviously happened for a reason, more than likely good. As Barbara has noted, there is only one race, the human race.
On another note, for those of you who resent having to be around Black people in the USA, all I can say is that you have your ancestors to thank. Black people, however they were living did not beg to be put in chains, stuffed into the bottom of a boat, die and suffer all sort of atrocities to get to North America and continue to suffer as slaves. I want to emphasize that the plight of Black folk is not to convey victimization. A look at history proves a concession to victimization has not been the overall case. However, the irrationality of those who insist on malignant racism shows a behavior that is psychotic at its roots when the circumstances of why you are even around Black people is taken into contemplation and consideration. - Reply to this comment
- a piece of my mind isn't .02 cents anymore inflation has driven my ADDING .02 cents to actually MY ADDING MY $5.00 but here goes: i'm afro american and please let me explain. i get angrier when AFRICAN AMERICANS bash each other, WHEN I see a newspaper with an African American joining a gang to do group RACIAL violence on a South American who was innocently in the wrong place at the wrong time. i get seriously angry when i can't justify the wrong my culture or ethnic group does. but, i still think men who ran Enron into the ground and all the CEO's stealing people's life savings on WALL STREET leaving their jobs with "Golden umbrellas" JUST BEFORE THE STOCK MARKET STORM HIT SHOULD BE IN A real SUPERMAX prison with poor men who suffer more for taking less.
if this were a JEWISH PRESIDENT and the cartoon had the NYPD cops shooting a crazed Hassidim/ZIONIST or a crazed Musilim or Islamic fundimentalist or IF THE CARTOON HAD BEING SHOT A crazed Taliban the call for the death of the cartoonist would have filled the airways. CONTRACTS WOULD HAVE BEEN PAID FOR HIS LIFE, REWARDS WOULD BE OFFERED FOR HIS DEATH THE CARTOONIST would have to go into hiding. believe it any other ethnic group would have come illegally or not into the USA and blown up his car you know truth when you read it. if it were the cops shooting even the French or English the television would show PROTESTS IN THE STREETS OF FRANCE OR ENGLAND FOR REAL. - Reply to this comment
- why such hate? These are people like you and me.You know the hatred will do more harm to you than to the black people.so get rid of it for even sake
- Reply to this comment
- I VOTED FOR OBAMA.. i am white..End the hate..WHITE PEOPLE WHAR YER SCARED OF ..i WOULD SHAKE OBAMA HAND IN A MAINE MINUTE..i can''t believe the hate. I am appalled .. I am trhilled he won.. I had hoped he would thw name he told us he entered the the race. MY LATE AUNT TAUGHT ME THIS AND I STAND BY IT. SHE SAID Barbara there is one race the human race..the human race.. I never forgot that. I am legally blind and so I asked her. Skin colour is meaningless to me. I WILL TALK TO OUR BLACK FOLKS AND SIT WITH THEM..
- Reply to this comment
- With *** like this, how is the Christian Right any different than Al Queda?
They will kill, mame, spew hate, teach their young to hate, lie, cheat, steal, and any number of assorted acts to voice their stupidity.....The next thing you know they will be strapping bombs to their kids in the name of Jeasus or is it Allah?
How much ignorance is in this country never ceases to amaze me. So I ask again, what''s the difference? How many more people must die in the name of what is supposed to be a loving GOD who created all of us in his own image? - Reply to this comment
- Only through Jesus Christ can racism be overcome!
Posted by PROVIDENCE-5 at 02:51 PM : Nov 16, 2008
Tell that to the white bruthas killin'' dem nasty ole blacks in the name of the LAWD!
Praise Jaysus and give me another cross to burn! - Reply to this comment
- No one in the Democratic party is running around chanting hateful things to happen to Bush or Cheney. I think these two are criminals and have greatly harmed the country. But what I want and what seems to be what most Democrats want is that legal steps be taken against them. We are not the party that hates and then kills or even thinks about killing or harming.
- Reply to this comment
- Children repeat what they hear at home so we know where these words are coming from. President Obama is not the problem that these haters are concerned about. The Bush republicans are the ones who have left America in harm''s way with war and financial ruin. White people hating our fine and decent President Elect Obama is sickening and depraved. We are all made by the same God. No one is any better than anyone else just because of skin color. Obama is going to be a good president to everyone, even the most racist bigots who are full of spite. Obama has the support of most of America and that is just too bad for you hate mongers.
- Reply to this comment
- they should send those second graders to a public school in Philadelhia and make them chant that in the school yead with no protection. The black kids, and the white kids would beat the living $hit out of them. This is an example of when violence is definately justified.
- Reply to this comment
Vicki Kennedy and Ted Kennedy Jr. on life without the late senator.
