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TechnoratiObama Win Prompts Wave of Hate Crimes
Barack Obama's election as America's first black president has unleashed a wave of hate crimes across the nation, according to police and monitoring organisations.
![[Signs hang on the office door of University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008, in Tuscaloosa, Ala., as Houston posted a message against racism after someone defaced a previous poster of Barack Obama and his family with a death threat and racial slur.
(AP Photo/Jay Reeves)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/racism1117.jpg "racism1117.jpg")
Far from heralding a new age of tolerance, Mr Obama's victory in the November
4 poll has highlighted the stubborn racism that lingers within some elements
of American society as opponents pour their frustration into vandalism,
harassment, threats and even physical attacks.
Cross burnings, black figures hung from nooses, and schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama" are just some of the incidents that have been documented by police from California to Maine.
There have been "hundreds" of cases 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.
The phenomenon appears to be at its most intense in the Southern states, where opposition to Mr Obama is at its highest and where reports of hate crimes were emerging even before the election. Incidents involving adults, college students and even schoolchildren have dampened the early post-election glow of racial progress and harmony, with some African American residents reporting an atmosphere of fear and inter-community tension.
In North Carolina, four students at the state university 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." Mr Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.
Marsha L. Houston, a University of Alabama professor, 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," Ms Houston said.
Second and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.
Meanwhile in Snellville, Georgia, Denene Millner, an African-American, said a boy on the school bus told her nine-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 faeces outside the front door, Ms 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," Ms Millner said. "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."
But the incidents have not been restricted to areas of high anti-Obama sentiment. Even states and cities which leaned heavily towards the Democrat have seen their share.
In New York, a black teenager said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted "Obama", while 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."
In the north-eastern state of Maine, customers at a general store in Standish were placing $1 bets on when the president-elect would be killed. A sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," it said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."
Black figures were hung by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported, while crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, New Jersey, and Apolacan Township, Pennsylvania. In Massachussetts, a nearly-finished church belonging to a black congregation was burned to the ground just hours after Mr Obama's victory was declared.
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.
Mr 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," Mr Ferris said. "It's never totally wiped out - it's in remission."
The day after the vote, Barbara Tyler, a black high school student in Marietta, Georgia, said she heard hateful comments about Mr Obama from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about his victory.
Ms Tyler spoke at a press conference by the Georgia chapter of the civil rights body NAACP which discussed 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 on November 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."
Sociologists said African-Americans suffering attacks and intimidation were essentially proxies for the frustrated emotions of some whites.
"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," Mr Gallagher said. "But it happens a lot."
128 Comments so far
Show AllI want some reply to this question please. I often hear the defenders of the white Supremacists say this: SOME BLACKS BEAT UP THE WHITE RACISTS TOO, SO THE BLACKS ARE ALSO RACISTS. I don't agree with this argument.
If our ruling class do not face up to this White racism and allow it to go on much longer we may come to a point when the coloured people of America will launch a backlash. We may or may not see a civil war but some kind of social upheaval is guaranteed. Something on a bigger scale than the Los Angeles revolt of a few years back.
There is only one race - the human race.
The nasty ignorant south and its hate mongers are still alive. Racism is a blemish on this country that no one wants to own up to. The Christian Right is at the heart of this dark secret that is truly the American legacy. If your brown, black or red, you do not fit. The "white American" can not stand to have the page turn in favor of the least. It is written the last will be first and the first will be last. The murdering legacy of racism is all around us; we tolerate it; we teach it; we pretend it is not there. Dare to look at our history and the story of a race enslaved for hundreds of years (slaves from Africa) or the racial cleansing of an entire race of Indian Americans is self evident. The "white man" believes he is exceptional and above all other humans on this planet. Any race that pushes down another is not worthy to be called human. If the great "white society" of Europe has brought us anything, it is death and destruction in the guise of civilization.
When media reports what some elementary-school kids said on their school bus . . . that's a good indication that the story is being overplayed.
The larger truth is that racism is declining in the U.S., not growing.
The larger truth is that, even in Texas, Idaho and (gasp) New York City, there are many decent people who deplore racism.
The larger truth is that violent racist acts are also perpetrated by non-whites. In Minneapolis, e.g., a white college woman was beaten by several black women for wearing a Sarah Palin button.
But these larger truths don't "fit" the story line, so they are omitted from the story. There is a thin line between this type of story and what was once known as "yellow journalism."
Naturally sez:
"The larger truth is that violent racist acts are also perpetrated by non-whites. In Minneapolis, e.g., a white college woman was beaten by several black women for wearing a Sarah Palin button."
The 'victim', Annie Grossman, is a conservative college student from Alaska who has met Sarah Palin and, according to her father, "is "very proud of Sarah Palin" and considers her "a role model." Her mother, who reported the incident the following day, is "Dawn Grossmann, a Delta Junction City Council member and chairwoman of a state commission that oversees public service funding in Alaska." "Dawn Grossmann has met with Palin for government business purposes and sent her daughter Palin campaign T-shirts."
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/34305774.html?page=1&c=y
"Augsburg spokesman Jeff Shelman said college officials do not believe the women are students. Campus security reviewed surveillance video of building entrances 30 minutes before and after the fight and did not see women matching the description."
http://www.twincities.com/ci_10969418?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.com
So this Alaskan Palin supporter student got beaten up on election night by a group of black women who don't show up on video. After the 'attack' she went back to her dorm. Her mother, who lives in Alaska, called campus security to report the incident the following morning. The "victim" refused medical treatment. There are no witnesses. There have been no followup stories since the original story on November 6th. No arrests.
It would seem that the larger truth illustrated by this story is that you should take assault stories by McCain/Palin supporters with a grain of salt. Remember the woman with the reverse B carved into her face by black Obama supporters?
Remember when she confessed she did it herself?
You forgot to mention that the victim is 18 years old, 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 120 pounds. You forgot to mention that she was examined by her sports team's trainer and found to have blurred vision and a concussion.
You also forgot to mention that Minneapolis "police and Augsburg University say they have no reason to suspect Grossmann was not assaulted." Both Minneapolis police and Augsburg college investigations are ongoing.
Since the Augsburg campus is in the inner-city of Minneapolis, the fact that the perpetrators were not seen on security cameras at campus building entrances indicates only that they were probably not students; not that the assault didn't happen.
Naturally sez:
"You forgot to mention that the victim is 18 years old, 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 120 pounds."
I'm not sure what you think her age, height and weight have to do with anything. Apparently they haven't kept her from playing the delicate sport of hockey.
Naturally also sez:
"You forgot to mention that she was examined by her sports team's trainer and found to have blurred vision and a concussion."
The paper doesn't say she was found to have a concussion, it says her "team trainer" said she "probably" had a concussion. She's "thought to have a concussion" but we have no medical verification of this because she "declined medical attention."
Think about it. You leave a group of people and walk to an area where you are attacked. Do you: A) Return to the safety of the group of people B) Continue alone to your dorm room without telling or calling anyone?
Then the next day, when you've got "blurred vision" and a possible concussion as the result of an attack, do you: A) Let a medical professional check you out or B) Decline medical attention?
As for the police statement, why do you think they felt it was necessary to issue that particular statement? It doesn't say Grossman was assaulted, it simply says they have no reason to suspect she was not assaulted. The only reason they'd issue a statement like that is if the presumption that she had not been attacked was raised.
I know this story is a wonderful meme for right-wingers, but it just doesn't ring true.
--------------------------------------------------
"Annie Grossmann, a freshman on the Minneapolis college's hockey team, suffered blurred vision and is thought to have had a concussion from a punch in the eye, but declined medical attention, she said." "The team trainer, who checked her out the next day, said she probably had a concussion and barred her from practice for two days."
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/34305774.html?page=1&c=y
"Doesn't ring true?" The facts speak for themselves. Your desperate and ridiculous attempts to twist the facts to fit your fantasy world are pathetic.
Do you really want to split hairs between a "concussion" and a "probable concussion?" Do you really think that it's suspicious that she went home after a beating in which her head hit a brick wall and her vision was blurred? Do you really think it would be reasonable to go back to the group of people who had just been so rude to her?
It's clear you would find fault with this girl's responses no matter what they were. You're really a disgusting excuse for a human being. Left-winger? Liberal? No, not you. You don't have the minimum qualification: a functioning conscience.
They are beating up a racist. What is so surprising about that? Consider what Sarah Palin and friends' ancestors had done to the blacks' ancestors and are still doing the racist things to them now. This is completely understandable. If America is not so much dominated by the Whites there might have been another civil war or a revolution long before now. Think about this, please.
The woman was assaulted for wearing a Sarah Palin button. (Read the linked news report.) You try to justify a racial assault by labeling the victim a racist. YOU are a racist. Think about that, please.
I am not a racist, bt I would consider assaulting someone vicious and stupid enough to wear a Palin button.
The children are simply echoing their parents, and the parents are representative of a larger group of adults with the same ideas. In time the intolerate will eventually fade away. As for the girl who was attacked for wearing a Palin button, it's possible. Although, I don't beleive it.
You don't "beleive" [sic]?
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/34305774.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:...
And people wonder why I consider all other animals superior to humans.
"Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow"
i cant believe this country I live in
Illness needs to be expressed. I am choosing to look at this rise in hate crimes as a healing crisis. Clearly we are on a path of healing. We could all use some guidance on how best to deal with the expressions. Try to imagine what it is like to be one of these people.
The joy that I felt on election night - the relief, the elation, the renewed hope; they've all fallen victim to that 800-pound gorilla in the room. I now find myself in a near-constant state of inner prayer: "Please, God, keep our new President and his beautiful family safe. Please."
When John and Bobby and Martin were taken from us, the men who supposedly pulled the triggers were such nobodies, such losers; they evoked little more than silent contempt and morbid curiosity from the public at large. To this day we continue to search for the real culprits; some cabal of evil conspirators "worthy" enough to have committed such world-shattering atrocities.
And now I read that, since the election, there have been hundreds of "incidents", "hate crimes", and "threats" around the country. And I read about that preacher in Kansas who's been raving that we now have a "Muslim President", and that it constitutes a "sin against the Lord".
I do have some faith in the ability of the Secret Service to protect the First Family from most of the ignorant racist yahoos out there. But if, God forbid, the rhetoric evolves into actual violent acts, well, this time I know precisely who to blame - It will be YOU, Mr. O'Reilly! YOU, Mr. Limbaugh! YOU, Mr. Hannity. YOU, Ms. Coulter! You, Mr. "Christian" Preacher! ALL of you lying, racist, hate-spewing assholes! You will ALL share the guilt.
I can't resit commenting on this subject. None of the individuals or groups mentioned in the article have the power or capabilities of any sort that allow them to plan and successfully carry out an act of critical violence against a public official such as the President-elect. to put it nicely, they are too weak and unsophisticated. Those who might be or are powerful and capable of causing harm to a national leader are not motivated by irrational emotions and they don't waste time stuffing pizza boxes with the unmentionable. Of course amongst that group of citizens gone wild are very likely at least a few over the edge wackos itching for a suicide mission. The noise coming from the Limbaughs of radio, print and television media do aid in motivating the type of people who murdered the Kennedys and Dr. King. My hope is in the belief that the Secret Service is so much more capable today than they were in the 1960s.
Mars:I was following along,nodding my head until you say" Motivating the type of people who murdered the Kennedys and Dr. King."
I do not believe mentally ill people, "a few over the edge wackos" as you call them, are capable of planning, executing as individuals or a small group of same.
One person you might check out in re Dr. King's murder is Earl Caldwell, a journalist who was covering Dr.King's visit to Memphis when King was murdered. Caldwell got to the motel right after King was shot and spoke to Dr. King's driver. Caldwell was covering Dr. King for the NYTimes. He's a journalist and what he saw was not taken seriously by the FBI. Caldwell is a show host on WBAI www.wbai.org.
Let's hope they have twice as many Secret Service men guarding him. Europe is looking at the U.S. with pride for electing Obama.
Americans abroad were actually hugged. One newsman said he was kissed on the cheek. He was amazed as at times before when asked angrily if he was an American he had said he was Canadian out of fear for his safety. He said this new respect for Americans was a welcome change from the hostility Americans abroad had felt before.
Imagine how all that could change if anything happened to our first black President. Well now, he's really black AND
white, isn't he?
This was one of America's shining hours.
Some of you do not know who the prominent leaders of Anglo Saxon racists are. The racists have already secretly launched their global network. Let's listen to George W. Bush's clons and viceroys in Australia and New Zealand for a start. They are Messrs. John Howard and Stephen Harper, and here both of them were talking about the Iraqi War back in 2003 in identical words. Apparently they were regurgitating memos from President Bush, committed to memory earlier on. If you are surprised, then I must say you are still not yet up to speed. Here is the Youtube connection, enjoy,:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8YwJC_nBgw
And anyones surprised by this!?!
Sometimes a bit of ice cold water on the face does wonders.
Personally I'm kinda glad this happened. A lot of folks were startng with Obama getting the nod the US has gotten over racism. This all but proves that inspite this the US has a ways to to. And that we know who the US' own terrorists are (the ones ignored by much of Bushco).
It's just penis envy.
"Mr Potok, who is white, said ... that the country their forefathers built ON THE BACKS OF THE AFRICANS, has somehow been stolen from them."
GOOD! They stole the country in the first place..fair is fair, cracker!
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
This information was also circulating in Spanish translation here in Latin American papers.
I don't give a rat's butt for those crackers who think their country has been stolen from them.
Let them start giving it back to MY people.
I voted for McKinney - not Obama/Biden, primarily for the reasons The doctor cited above
But I could be wrong !
I'm glad I voted for this man. These types of people who hate him, they show the quality of his character by contrast.
The only reason I ended up voting for Obama in the end was because the cracker factory started asserting itself through the McCain campaign before it was over with. Not much satisfaction given how much I detest Obama's politics, but being an old Alaska country boy, there's something about sticking racists in the eye with the reality of a non-white world that's distinctly satisfying.
By the same token, it just goes to show just how bankrupt Obama's efforts to placate the right wing really are. Obama may as well embrace militant Blacks, as he's going to be seen as a Black agitator by many whites anyway. His refutation of Pastor Wright was opportunist, and as the present reality shows, swayed no one in that world. He may as well uphold what miilitant Blackas have always said, because he's going to catch shit anyway. Unfortunately, sold as he is on the imperial project- which is in itself Eurocentric and racist- he'll never get it.
Creating more martyrs is just what these people need to do?
Or else we would not now be where we currently are.
These knuckledraggers don't just hate people of color but all those they consider a threat to their God-given position at the top of the human heap. Years ago Czech-immigrant friends - blond and blue-eyed - were burned out of their house in Oregon. Their Catholic faith made them socially undesirable. I was booted out of an office in eastern Washington with the screamed words "Get out of here! We don't hire no wops!" after the man in charge of hiring took a look at my application, asked about my last name and I responded "Italian". Times have changed and the racist sickos don't spout off in public like they used to but their time-honored traditions are still passed from generation to generation and live on just under their lily white skins. Scratch them, like we did in the last election, and all the vitriole packed inside comes oozing out.
When another human deviates in any way from their definition of God-fearing and righteously American, there's going to be Hell to pay. After all, God made them in his image - white and male - and put them in charge. Because they will never question their belief in God's master plan for a white master race, there's no way to reach them with the idea of a diverse world of shared power.
Busque la verdad!
hi ted m,
i won't mention any names/handles here, but feel free to go into the archives and dig them up. they know who they are, and they've yet to make a comment here about the article.
unless, of course, your comment is of the facetious nature.
Seems like you all forget that Obama and "I'm a Zionist" Joe Biden support aparthied and ethnic cleansing. Sorry to pop your bubble. Meet tne new boss same (only a little darker)same as the old boss.
ah, so it is about race. where are all you posters, who over the last four or five months, declared rather emphatically that race had nothing to do with this election???
let's not forget palin's part in this as she did more than her fair share of rekindling that old flame of racism. one can only hope that - after losing a beauty contest to a black woman and the white house to a black man - she would bow out gracefully. but, as the article so clearly points out, racists never learn.
Gee, I don't remember reading any posts saying that race had nothing to do with this election. You sure you're on the right site?
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
The more religious and patriotic, the more conservative, the more racist, reactionary, cowardly, murderous, criminal, dumb and greedy.
...uneducated, isolated...
"Mr 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."
Would seem to be poetic justice I reckon, given that they stole it from the Red Indians in the first place. And it's ironic too, that the slaves that they stole from Africa are asserting themselves and claiming the same rights as their while masters.
"Humans: How Evil Are We?" That's my latest post. It might interest you!
www.dangerouscreation.com
Bring America Back !!!! Great, informative, and educational article by Hanna Strange !!! Thanks to CD for picking it for news release !
***During the Primaries when the polls kept showing 55% to 45% of the Nation was for Obama over McCain, I kept wondering--after the last 8 miserable years of the Bush Neocons, who really comprised the 45% still swinging along with the rotten Republican brand of anything ????
***Well, the two legged-Rats reported on in here certainly would be a fair percentage of those who were going McCain for skin color purposes !!! These scum of the Earth hate criminals need prosecuted to the fullest extent, then shipped to Abu Gharib as the Domestic Terrorists they are !!
**That this dirty underbelly of conservatism rears its ugly heads is a disgrace to all Americans. Viva Obama !!! Let us all make a concerted effort to get these HUMAN RATS exposed and jailed before we have inauguration Jan 20 !!
I would take a bullet for Obama. He is my president (soon will be).
Oakknot
As would I, Mr. Butterfield. At last a(n elected) president I would stand for.
Much ado over nothing. I bet half of these hate crimes are being committed by pissed off Nader supporters. After all, remember Nader's comment about Obama being an "Uncle Tom". Given the history of that slur, Nader should know better.
It really is embarrassing to read your comments.
" I bet half of these hate crimes are being committed by pissed off Nader supporters"
You know better than that Joe. Your statement is ridicules.
JoeDumber, try switching to lead free solder, it's less damaging to brain cells.
Joe,
I voted for Obama, but c'mon, man - let's not lose our heads. Pissed of Nader voters? Please.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme. But Nader needs to apologize or rightly be labeled a racist. His supporters should apologize as well. I mean, c'mon, calling Obama an "Uncle Tom" is pretty bad.
Yeah, it could be them Nader supporters all right, that almost lost the election for us again this time! It ain't just them neocons or them Klansters. It could be them tree huggers. Or else them gang bangers or them fairies, or maybe them drug addicts. I hate them hate people.
Are you a bitter Nader supporter or a bitter McKinney supporter?
You forgot bitter Clinton supporters. :-)
And people called me racist when I said America is NOT ready for a black president.
I was just stating what I've experienced. I was in the South during and after the Civil Rights days and Saw that even though the battle was lost did NOT mean anything was 'hearts and flowers'. Quite the opposite - if anyone ws suspected of having helped the 'cause', they were ostracized at best and no end to the worst dished out.
Maybe I should have said that most whites, especially older males, are not ready for minority rule, so I stand corrected.
But as everyone can see, even as the days of 'powerlessness' ends, the inbred racism of this society is making one last gasp, a death convulsion hopefully, before the 'others' are in the majority. BTW, statistically, that will take place no later than 2025.
But I could be wrong !
most whites? watch the generalizations...of course there are people who are racist, and some of them are 'white', this does not mean that most whites feel this way.
Racism is a shame, I too hope that it dies out...but "reverse" racism just perpetuates it...
It was silly and unreasonable of people to accuse you of racism for making your prediction that America was not ready for a black person in the White House. But you were dead wrong in your prediction. Reality, Curmudg, reality. Obama won by a landslide and even increased the white Dem vote (slightly) over Kerry and Gore. Arguing that we weren't ready for a Black president because there are some incidents is not reasonable.
Experts tell us that 10% of the US population is openly racist--anti Blacks. That's 30 million people! Of course, electing a Black man was going to provoke incidents.
You use the expression 'minority rule' completely incorrectly and it sends a bad message. In the British parliamentary system, several parties exist easily (as opposed to our system where 2 parties have a lock on power). So it happens regularly enough that the governing party (with the most members of Parliament) does not have a majority of seats and the other parties combined can 'defeat it in the House of Commons) and force an election.
That situation is called 'minority rule', because that's simply what it is. Our situation is simply that our president happens to be a member of a visible minority. But we sure don't have 'minority rule'.
Thank you one and all for your input.
I think that the majority of whites did not vote for Obama.
But that said, there was only one age group among whites where the majority did NOT vote for Obama - the over 65 crowd.
Check the following:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/exit.polls/index.html?eref=rss_politics&iref=polticker
Exit polls: Obama wins big among young, minority voters
Story Highlights
NEW: Voters 65 and older only age group to go McCain's way
Twice as many voters factored in age than did race
Obama scores large majority of first-time voters
49 percent of those polled expect tax increases
Next Article in Politics »
(CNN) -- Strong support from young and minority voters propelled Barack Obama on the road to the White House, exit polls showed Tuesday.
Students wait in a long line to vote Tuesday on the campus of the University of Central Florida.
Voters in the 18 to 24 age group broke 68 percent for Obama to 30 percent for John McCain, according to the exit polling. Those in the 25 to 29 age bracket went 69 percent to 29 percent in Obama's favor.
The only age group where McCain prevailed was 65 and over, and that by just a 10-percentage-point margin, 54 percent to 44 percent, the exit polls showed.
And minorities went heavily into the Obama camp. Blacks, 96 percent Obama to 3 percent McCain; Latinos, 67 percent Obama to 30 percent McCain; and Asians, 63 percent Obama to 34 percent McCain.
Obama did well with Latinos because they appear to disapprove of President Bush's job performance more than the rest of the country, CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said. Watch CNN's Bill Schneider explain the Latino impact »
But I could be wrong !
+I think that the majority of whites did not vote for Obama.+
+But that said, there was only one age group among whites where the majority did NOT vote for Obama - the over 65 crowd.+
55% of all Whites voted McCain
57% of white males voted McCain
only the white under 29 crowd voted for Obama, the remainder of ages (30yrs+) voted 57% or more for McCain.
Heres the results.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#USP00p1
I am not 'of color' and my entire family voted for Obama. I think it's high time that race stopped being the first thing that we see in eachother and that we start looking through 'new' eyes.
Obama's victory gives us the opportunity to learn this important lesson.
78% of Jews voted for Obama.
...and would that be because at least a part of that vote resulted from the allegiance of Obama, Hillary, and Biden to AIPAC and the racist, genocidal policies of the Israeli government?
I'm one of those 'older white males' living in the cradle of the Confederacy who abhors this sickening racism and has worked his tail off for the Obama Campaign. Representative Paul Broun, (R-GA) has fanned the flames by referring to Obama as Hitler..we don't need Congressmen like him to add to the thick lunatic fringe in this nation. I look to Obama to pickup the shards of our country and put us together again.
Change doesn't come easy but it was bound to occur. It's like turning on a light in your kitchen only to see some cockroaches run for the cracks in the wall.
Paul Broun represents the few last dying dixiecrats, now in Republican red cloth, who just won't adjust to change. It's their last hurrah. Let's just see how 'safe' his district really is. The demographics are changing and fossils like him are going extinct. Remember George Allen thought his Senate seat was safe too even after the 'Macaca' statement.
matthew loughran
i am a younger white male (44)living in galveston tx but i am originally from the nyc area. I supported cynthia mckinney and rosa clemente for the green party and their history making campaign.
I only hope obama can make many serious changes that this country will need.
the republican trolls who say crap like broun troll from georgia have no business being in office. The Repug party is racist and chock full of authoritarian assholes.
some of the white dem leadership doesnt help by not pushing for enforcement of hate crimes. they also dont help when they happily support the prison police state in the US.
Amen! We can expect the racism from ignorant people, but to have a Congressman
making stupid statements like that is unforgivable. I also think Obama will be
a very good President if given the chance. Hopefully some racist nut will not
prevent it.
How any American or Britian can be racist beggars belief. In the end, Black men as well as men from all over the world, died so they may live.
Maybe one day these people will have some respect for that sacrifice.
Please know I pray for it.
Think gentle, be gentle.
It would be useful to have a plan for how to deal with a renewed civil war in the USA. Since the first one never ended, it would be wise to think about the implications of stories like "Second and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said."
and
"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.
So how will we deal with an assassination?
I would like to think gentle, but my gut is telling me that those who would harm Obama would ultimately like to see something more far reaching happen in the US.
They would like to see 1861 repeated. I believe that the rage that would be unleashed by the harm of Obama and the destruction of the hope that he represents could lead to civil war. In the end those die-hard confederate racists who still live among us, could very well get their wish.
I say "Protect Hope- Protect Barack Obama"
It is pretty nuts that 1/2 the nation is stocking up on bullets, and they're not Obama supporters. The next few months promise to show just the type of country we live in. Unfortunately, I'm not picturing roses.
Yeah I heard that too but I am going to picture roses!
What would happen?
if it happened before 01/20/09, Bush/cheney invoke NSPD 51 and marshal law to keep that "rage" under control.
would Biden then be sworn in as Pres? HRC as VP? or would there just be Bush/Cheney marshal law ad infinitum?
definitely protect BHO and his family.
Firefed: 2nd and 3rd graders have no idea what assassination means. I think the Secret Service will do its job of protecting the President Elect. (I hope so.) In our communities we speak out against hate crimes and make sure the local prosecutors take hate crimes seriously. We can support all the minority groups in our communities,cities who are vulnerable and let them know it. And everybody can start reading, listening to Tim Wise's antiracism material.
Please...kids 8 and 9 years old have no idea what it means for somebody to be killed!?? Of course they tend to repeat what they've heard from parents, older siblings, etc., but I sure knew what it meant to die by the time I was 5.
Let's keep our feet on the ground.
Not the point, is it? They surely don't know what assassination means and if they know what dying means, it's not like an adult knows. Second and third graders are 7 and 8 years old. Knowing what it meant to die is not the same as knowing what they were chanting. (Some folks use wheelchairs and feet are not on the ground.)
The point is:did the school address the issue? Will the town? How much antiracism education do people have? See Tim Wise writings.
In 1963, I was in 3rd grade and knew what assassination meant before November 22. Beware the fallacy of absolutes.
Jeevee
How about teaching school kids to LOVE, unselfishly, ALL SENTIENT BEINGS? In years spent living in India, it was always a satisfaction to see how all species of animals, of which we are one, moved with the dignity and grace of Self confidence.
(LYING BRINGS AN UNBEARABLE ITCH OF THE MIND, WHICH CEASES ONLY WHEN TRUTH TRIUMPHS.) How about teaching people that always telling the truth brings more satisfaction, peace of mind and self respect than lying ever does?
It is not surprising that the Sturmabteilung (SA) wing of the American body politic is now in their post-election whine mode. Even though their rage is dangerous, I watch with a healthy dose of amused schadenfreude, as these scum bags whom have held the USA hostage with their ignorance are coming to the glacial realization that their life ways is inexorably headed for the same fate as the FLDS, luddite anachronistic leftovers from the past whom are alternatively laughed at or who's children are pitied for being born into those families. What is paramount for progressives is that everything is done to make sure of their permanent burial, as the time for that is well past due.
www.wunderman-comics.com
"What is paramount for progressives is that everything is done to make sure of their permanent burial, as the time for that is well past due."
As much as I'd like to see this, I don't think it's possible. The spores from these people are all around and will only take seed when the time is right.
We need to be ever vigilant that hatred and bigotry are within us all, and cultivate the opposite.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
Seems to me that the parents of all those little Mormon children in Idaho could use a little history lesson of their own...they need to check out their own dirty little massacre-ing history (see Mountain Meadows Massacre http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94509868)
There's nothing like a little local communal hatred...puts money in the pocket and feels so VERY good!
We've just suffered through eight years of moronic leadership where the ghosts of Moussorgky were summoned from the grave to scare all the mainstream folks into submission. And we'll be suffering for many years to come from the near complete collapse of the economic fabric of this country under this cabal.
Now what misery will their uneducated, myopic minions force upon us before the odor of their moral putrefaction finally becomes undetectable?
'"Someone once said racism is like cancer," Mr Ferris said. "It's never totally wiped out - it's in remission."'
Indeed.
There is a very thin veil of decency and civility in any "civilization." We can see this in all walks of life. ALL walks. The struggle within each of us is to transcend this as much as we can.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
I work for a police department in Maryland and have heard everything from the "N word" to how could Americans have elected a Muslim. As well one made a comment about a new family moving into Pennsylvania Ave in DC and of course used the "N Word". I think you made the right assement when you said the racial intolerence is in "remission". I voted for Obama and so did my Sgt. and were both White.
Obama was right. There are bitter and angry voters out there.
...yes, he was absolutely right..and I want to see him padded in Kevlar from head to foot with a standing army of Secret Service Agents at all times. This man is too valuable to the survival of this nation at this crucial time...we must ALL stand behind and in front of him.
Yeah, well, let me just say to all those pissy conservatives, "welcome to MY world for the past eight years!"
As a white, Southern woman, I feel a great responsibility to let the people around me know that I voted--happily and with both eyes wide open--for Barack Hussein Obama.
Maybe when these wingnut loons realize there aren't as many people on "their" side as they think there are, it will make them take a moment to think. That's my rose-colored perspective, anyway.
Not rose-colored at all. And thanks for that bit of reality.
If you haven't yet, you might want to read Frank Rich (Sunday New York Times...free on-line). He's been going on for the last year making basically the point you made: that America has changed a lot in the last couple of decades and that while there are still racists (and way too many), McCain/Palin's shameful pitch to racism and ignorance didn't work because America has changed.
The Repugs find themselves falling apart because they don't get it that we've changed pretty much as you've pointed out.
Racism has been U.S. policy since 1776.
Racism is based on a belief in supremacy.
I think fear is too often used as a simplification of the belief system.
It is based on the idea that your group is superior in value to others because of certain criteria of value defined by those who stand to benefit from it.
Racial supremacists do it,
human supremacists do it with respect to non human injustices.
That's why Singer is wrong when he uses the term speciesism.
It implies that other species are speciesist. they arent. the problem is entirely human. The idea that my group as I define it is better than others, and can treat it according to a double standard.
Supremacy beliefs are not absolute or objective. nature doesnt change the laws of gravity for white supremacists or human supremacist or christian supremacists.
Attacking the belief in being special and the criteria used for this belief is more effective than simply saying: oh blacks and whites are both special.
The racists wont accept it.
So its better to attack their beliefs in what makes them think they are better.
I used to do it all the time when arguing animal rights issues and it was an iron clad winner. It worked against hunters and university professors.
It wont make friends among racists but at least you dont leave them comfortable.
The reference above to Irish being regarded as "animals" is proof of this. The same was done to black slaves and asians, and even among other ethnic groups you find the tendency to want to make one group inferior to yours.
Humans ARE animals-they just think they are better that the rest without any basis for it. Racists are just another shade of it.
And this is why its silly when the anti-animal rights people try to say that humans need to regard humans first, because history shows that humans always regarded themselves according to criteria that had nothing to do with species or dna.
They used race, skin colour, religion, gender, wealth, appearance, place of birth, language, (the Greeks and Hebrews were considered democratic but were fiercely anti-foreigner).
Anyway
I suspected this would happen.
I really hope Obama has some good secret service people because all the militia nuts are going to come out I bet.
"Second and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted 'assassinate Obama,' a district official said."
Knee-jerk, conditioned belief systems. We've all got 'em, and a sign of maturing is to examine what we believe, where we got that belief, and whether it serves us now as something sound and valuable.
What I've perceived in my lifetime is that people who are terribly insecure and/or have developed a runaway ego, seem to always need someone or something to label inferior to them to make them feel good and talking with others who share and affirm their ugly beliefs makes for cement, and they can continue to feel superior.
For some in the South, especially, the sight of an elegant black man who also speaks eloquently who now is our president, just knocked off their Superiority Crown. And they are left with their own hatred of themselves and their insecurities and rampant egos which really is a sign of deep insecurity.
"All black [substitute N-word] people are like children. They're so stupid."
That and similar, I've heard as mantras, North and South, East and West.
Well, the curtain goes up and their stands Barack Obama, President-elect of the United States with a lovely, intelligent wife, and, my god, both of them Harvard graduates.
Obviously, the little children on the bus chanting "Assassinate Obama" have been conditioned already at the breakfast and dinner table and maybe even in school or church.
That wonderful song from the musical "South Pacific," "They [children] have to be taught to hate" and to fear ... And we are taught and we also learn just by listening to the "grown-ups," and hating and fearing becomes a conditioned habit.
Introspection? The most difficult leap toward personal,independent thinking is to buck the "tribal" belief systems by thinking introspectively, which is sort of a natural process of maturing. But if one ends up rejecting what one has been taught as "the word, sometimes it can mean ostracism and exile from family, neighborhood, etcetera. "Well, our family has never thought that way. This is what we believe and you are talking nonsense." Often that's enough to stop a young person in their tracks and put away introspective thoughts and stay tight with the clan, family, tribe ... whatever to be safe and to be accepted.
Others [and this is very personal to me] break with particular beliefs and traditions, and it can become a tough row to hoe. But on some things Right is Right, Truth is Truth ... and compromising self is more damaging in the long run then Knowing Thyself and liking thyself without needing someone else's approval.
We've come a long way, we think, about racial divisions; then, of course, we go to war and Muslims become the enemy. And we invent new epithets. "Filthy, sneaky Ragheads" is the one I've heard around where I live in rural-land in the Northeast.
What to do? Lots possible without being the heavy. If people are talking about such as this in ways you don't agree with, gently join the conversation. Ya' never know. You might bring a new way of looking at things and plant a seed that eventually blooms.
enuf - peace ...
Excellent post. The only thing I'd add is that racism is also used as an instrument of social control. Someone focusing their ire on immigrants/other races is expending energy that might have gone into complaining about their wages or lack of healthcare. I've read that gangs are allowed in prisons so they'll focus on other gangs instead of the guards.
QUOTE:
Second and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama,"
COMMENT:
Racism isn't inborn, it is taught. Taught primarily by parents, but also peers who were taught racial hatred by their parents. So in that way it is a virus: one child catches racism from a parent then spreads it around to other children.
In the "liberal" neighborhood of my youth any foot-race between a group of boys was likely to be accompanied by someone shouting, "last one there is a nigger baby." In addition to the third generation residents, there were a sprinkling of southerners in our neighborhood and the racism of the parents contaminated their children, who then contaminated the children of "liberal" parents. The native "liberal" parents might have threatened to wash their children's mouth out with soap for using a racial slur, but the disease had already spread.
Society at large can't do much about changing the minds of adult racists, the only hope is to try to influence their children before they catch the disease.
The only place I can think of where society can have much direct influence is in elementary school, especially the early grades before racism is deeply entrenched: in public school, of course, which is why the racists want to destroy public schools, or at least get their children out of them.
This isn't simple. While university professors are more likely to have a lean toward tolerance, elementary school teachers seem to be complete products of their environment. Southern teachers teaching children in Southern schools create Southern adults. And nothing changes.
The two major things I see that can create a major influence for change in children are text books and television. Television is probably doing about all that is reasonable: already there are the "obligatory blacks" in advertising and the "obligatory black" friends or co-workers, and even professionals and bosses, in many television series.
The potential for influence in text books is somewhat greater, if only the publishers would do more to show good race relations. And of course, if only the schools would use those texts.
Anyone have any other ideas? And as importantly, any practical way to implement good ideas? For example, how can we, the great unwashed masses influence text book publishers?
Well I thought Oscar Hammerstein III expressed your viewpoint very well in "South Pacific". However there aren't such voices in popular media/entertainment these days that encourage people to examine their prejudices.
"For example, how can we, the great unwashed masses influence text book publishers?"
Go to School Board meetings--become elected to the School Board. Go to PTA meetings. Meet with your kids's teachers and question their racial attitudes. Expose racist/bigoted teachers in the local press. Equate racism with sexual child abuse. Publicly challenge those making racist remarks. Make racism a moral issue.
The law or justice( I use these terms loosely) apparatus in thes country is much more interested in prosecuting peaceful demonstrators or Quaker meetings than going after people who would assissinate our President-elect. This is a direct result of the Republican administrations beginning with Ronald Raygun in 1981. It was only slightly dampened by the Clinton Republican administration.
I find this horrifying and scary. President-elect Obama is our fairly (mostly) elected new president. Why can't these aluminum hat wearing people give him a chance?
Please give a more comprehensive definition of who you think the "aluminum hat wearing people" are. Don't you know that wearing an aluminum hat will prevent the brain from being turned into a big wad of cotton?
Brits are never more content than when they look down their snotty noses at Americans. Brits forget their persecution of the Irish as "savages" and "animals" and their continued occupation of three counties to create the fiction of "Northern Ireland".
Brits forget that they had pro-fascist Hitler sympathizers from the lowest to the highest ranks of their society during WWII and that they too have a long history of anti-semitism going back to the days of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.
I just can't wait till some former colony or Commonwealth national who is not caucasian is elected Prime Minister--on that day I expect to look out my window to see the pigs flying.
Poet
Poet: The Jews of England were expelled, en masse, in 1290. I just googled it. By King Edward I.
This is the "real" America whose ass McCain and Palin were kissing.
Please remember that some of us, even though we live in those "real" America towns,
aren't part of that crowd. I live in a small town in Eastern Texas and hear plenty
of remarks that make me ashamed to live here. McCain won in this county by almost
three to one and I hear the N word often. That these things are happening does not
surprise me at all. I'm proud to have a President that I feel is much smarter than
me. I sure never felt that way the last eight years.
Unfortunately, you are correct...perhaps McCain and Palin sedate themselves to sleep at night.
Actually, from my viewpoint they were peeking out of that ass.
:o) touche.
Based on election returns, I compiled a list of clearly racist states.
In no particular order:
Kentucky
West Virginia
Alabama
Mississippi
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Arkansas
Kansas
Louisiana
Nebraska
Texas
Wyoming
Utah
Idaho
Alaska
These came close to making the list:
South Carolina
Arizona
So it should come as no surprise that we have 2nd and 3rd grade students from Idaho chanting "assassinate Obama" or incidents in Alabama. Racists ought to be treated as terrorists, and their parents ought to stand trial with them; afterall, who taught them to be racists?
How did you miss adding GEORGIA to your list? Representative Paul C. Broun (R-GA) has called Obama 'Hitler' and says Obama's national security force proposal is an effort to create an American Gestapo. How did Broun get elected ANYWHERE?
People on the Right are not the only ones concerned about Obama's call for a "national domestic security force". There's a BIG question about the possibility of Obama dismantling the Police State which has matasticized over the last eight years. Obama has called for a "national domestic security force" to number even greater than our present military and to be funded at an even greater level than the military. Yes, Obama and Emanuel have some really big plans for national "service", especially for the masses of the jobless roaming the streets. Looking at the record and associations of Obama and Emanuel, not to mention the enthrallment of so many who swallow the Obama rhetoric whole cloth, I think some conscientious skepticism and vigilence is definitely in order. I'm reminded of a poster on CD, who has twice used Obama's quoted reason for not impeaching Bush. For me, Obama's words are quite alarming. Could this quite possibility be a "seamless transition" to greater fascism.
My personal experience indicates that both S. Carolina and Arizona are MORE racist than many on your list.
Obama has continually said "There are no blue states, there are no red states, we are the United States."
By making Lincoln's principle of union the foundation of his political philosophy, Obama reminds us not to make such lists. The people who reported the racist incidents are, after all, citizens of those states where social institutions remain animated by a secessionist & segregationist model. It is always the racist parties that want to separate from the US, the way that Todd & Sarah Palin would like. In the fog of all the idiotic things she's said, people missed the fact that she believes that the United States is a foreign country, where people "aren't as advanced as we are in Alaska".
Racial hatred reached its zenith in the 1920s in the US -- the most aggressively capitalist decade prior to this past decade -- and it was really the experience of Depression & war which resulted in the civil rights movement & its successes.
So we need to continually refresh ourselves in the belief that the United States means a place of equality, where racists feel that they are in a miserable Hell of miscegenation & openness.
It is the rightwing that practices divide & conquer; we should practice unification & liberation.
I'll just say that my 40+ years studying US and World history leads me to a different interpretation of Lincoln's intentions. The "Union" means the same as Empire, and served Northern interests far more than Southern. Preserving that Empire was why Lincoln goaded the South into firing the first shot because there was little public sentiment for the Union/Empire's preservation. All that changed with the attack on Fort Sumter.
I would also observe that the strongest secession movement exists in Vermont and is based on wanting out of the Empire for moral and ethical reasons, and that those sentiments are echoed by the other secessionist movements outside of Alaska.
"...the United States means a place of equality..." is a myth, as proven by the Constitution's "3/5s clause" and the complete exclusion of females.
You forgot Hawaiʻi. They actually had a quite sophisticated government before it was overthrown by the USA. Considering how militarized Oʻahu is, they got a long road ahead of them.
It is way past time that these most ignorant,racists were told: AMERICA LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!
Really?
Does that mean you are prepared to give back Turtle Island to the folks you ripped it off from: MY people?
I very much doubt Paul revere "ripped off" anyone's land.
OH?
You think the land his house stood on belonged to no native tribe?
Time for a basic history course, sir or madam.
The poster's pseudonym, not the actual historical person.
Do you believe that the house that the poster whose handle is Paul Revere is on land that belonged to no native tribe?
Definitely time to learn something about the history of the US.
Quite likley. My house is on land never "owned" by Native Americans, although they certainly "inhabitated" my region. I have an MA in US History and have spent most of my life studying the US Empire. And First Peoples are certainly not innocent of taking others's lands. A related question: Who came first, Palestinians or Hebrews?
I doubt very seriously that your house is not on tribal land.
An MA in revisionist history, gringo style?
Native Americans stole lands from WHOM, precisely?
Israel should be de-countrified.
Sounding like JakeNewton more and more. You don't read very much or well, do you?
Read plenty, and didn't get my PhD from a box of Cracker Jacks, either.
Go troll somebody else.
Lets face it. We Europeans squatted on whatever land we found and considered natives of an inferior race/culture to justify our takeover. We are all humans..natives and squatters who both can and do kill each other, steal from each other, and claim that the devil made us do it. Natives killed each other, sacrificed each other, stole each other's game..and we are no better than they. Personally, I have always wanted to be a Native American so I could feel more at home here. Nothing like gassing up in sight of the Custer Memorial while a giant with shiny black hair towers over you cleaning your windshield to KNOW THAT WE DON'T BELONG HERE..we owe the indigenous peoples much.
Amen to that, Paul Revere!!!
The article was read on the air, this morning, by Bernard White on "WakeUpCall",WBAI www.wbai.org with discussion afterwards with Prof. William Loren Katz. It's archived for about 90days,free online. Katz made a point about in other times, there were examples of solidarity between whites and blacks when there were particular incidents, going back to the 1930s, at least (what I remember). Prof. Katz is a historian.
I do want to point out, that the assassinations of former presidents and other leaders, were not murdered by "random" loners, but we really don't know who killed JFK, Rev.MLKingJr, and Bobby Kennedy Jr (even though individuals were arested for the crimes).
Random members of hate groups, and "spontaneous" groups of men have attacked individuals, such as happened on Election Day on Staten Island, the most conservative part of NYC. All people have to say that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. Local law enforcement may have to be forced to prosecute hate crimes.
It was proven in a Civil suit trial that the US Government was responsible for MLK's murder. The details are all here. For JFK, we know it wasn't Oswald.
"Hate Groups" are domestic terrorists.
I think I might include Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Neal Boortz, and others of that ilk as 'domestic terrorists'..they spread hateful lies to line their pockets.
I really think we need to look at these radio thugs and examine how their 24/7 spew affects people. While I'm loathe to censor what they say (within reason), it's obvious that most of them knowingly come dangerously close to inciting violence. They seem to know just where the line is, though, that line has been redefined over the years.
If nothing else, I hope Obama reinstates the Fairness Doctrine - not that I expect it to matter to those who follow these creeps. But, it may have some kind of stabilizing effect. Hard to tell.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
As a Camelot Kid, I was raised believing that it wasn't Oswald, or that he was as he said, a patsy. Vincent Bugliosi's "Reclaiming History", written over the two decades since Bugliosi participated in a mock trial of Oswald with Gerry Spence, persuaded me otherwise. Not that there weren't people in the intelligence & criminal community who weren't eager to get rid of JFK, or who may have been plotting to do so.
I'm disinclined to use the term "domestic terrorists" because the term "terrorist" itself has served those who hate human rights so well in the last decade. It is absolutely true, though, that these hate groups hate the United States for our freedoms -- they only want the freedom to print lies, to own weapons & to threaten those outside their mental prison compounds.
Your second paragraph would be a perfect description of our U.S. shadow government.
And from this segment of society will come the next Republican presidential candidate, cleaned up, buffed up, well dressed, as eloquent as Shakespeare with the racist code words and phrases, spouting scripture and wearing a key chain in the shape of a noose. Haley Barbour might do; I'm sure he's thinking about it. And if not, then the next Great White Hope and Political Wet Dream of the Republicans will be David Petraeus, especially if Obama gingerly shoves him aside because the president wants out of Iraq in 16 months and the good general doesn't want to shut down his laboratory for the study of counterinsurgency.
It shows that legislating & protecting civil rights is only a part of the struggle against the toxin of racism. It's the primary duty of religious leaders to enlist on the side of civil rights, because religion remains the favored shield for bigotry.
And we can't just say that racism, like cancer, never goes away, because the Bush junta eviscerated the Department of Justice & set back federal protection of minorities' rights forty years. These people were not just lying low; they were deliberately and calculatedly bred & we saw this in the Nuremburg rallies of Palin over & over.
In my home state, the racist sheriff & his racist County Attorney were just re-elected (under shady circumstances) & the so-called Minutemen flourish here. Fortunately, we will have a new DoJ & I hope the new US Attorney will aggressively address the human rights violations which have been routine in Maricopa County over the last 16 years.
Are these are the same people who were intimidating people who criticized the Bush Administration?
Of course now that they are exposed the way they are they are lashing out at anything out of frustration. Anything to keep from having to do a little introspection!