News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Nov. 23, 2016: For those, including Donald Trump, who believe the fear rising in black and brown America is unjustified – think again!
On Friday, November 18th, the Southern Poverty Law Center issued a second report that said 701 incidents of hateful harassments have been reported to them in just one week – between Wednesday, Nov. 9 to Wednesday, Nov. 16th!
That number had originally been reported at over 200. Of the new 701 number, the SPLC, which is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, said 206 of those incidents reported were anti-immigrant.
The anti-immigrant incidents reported are varied. In Spokane, Washington for instance, police were called in to investigate a swastika and message referencing Trump that was spray-painted on a Mexican family’s garage in the Logan neighborhood.
The graffiti read, “Can’t stump the Trump, Mexicans.”
The family said they had never before been targeted for being Mexican or experienced racism in Spokane.
In Denver, Colorado, an immigration law firm got a voice mail from a white woman who stated: “Get your s..t together and get out of our country you f….ing Spick.”
In Tennessee, two Asian-Hispanic children born in America were told by some white kids that they will be getting a ticket out of the US soon.
In Massachusetts, a Muslim woman wearing a scarf on her head was told at a subway stop that Trump is going to kick her out of the country.
In New York City, an immigrant woman who works for a largely White real estate office, shared with me how some of her co-workers sent her an email with photo shopped images showing President Barack Obama and his wife, in a trash can.
While another colleague shared how, a black Jamaican attorney entered an elevator filled with Whites with an armful of files. He politely asked someone to press the button for his floor but he was ignored and then they laughed out loud when he had to scurry out before the door closed on him.
The SPLC says so far, anti-immigrant incidents remain the top type of harassment reported to them. Nearly 40 percent of all incidents occurred in an educational (K-12 schools and university/college) setting.
Meanwhile, the President-Elect, who spent his campaign spewing anti-immigrant vitriol and was endorsed by the KKK, has failed to address this fear and the rising incidents of hate. Not even a tweet to his millions of followers!
In fact, he indicated in a 60-Minutes interview that he had no idea of these incidents and when asked what his message to the haters would be, offered up a weak: “Stop it.”
To make matters worse, Trump insists he will be deporting as many as 3 million immigrants out of the U.S. and turning back President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order that will leave some 800,000 young undocumented immigrants exposed to deportation.
Trump’s cabinet picks to date has done little to assuage the rising fear. When David Duke, former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, expressed his approval of Trump’s recent cabinet appointments, you know we are in big trouble.
Trump has so far named all alt-right White men with a history of racism in his new cabinet. Diversity be dammed!
Jeff Sessions, his attorney general pick, could not become a district court judge because of accusations of racism in the 1980s.; Michael Flynn, his choice for assistant for national security affairs, has retweeted anti-Semetic content and has said that fear of Muslims is rational; Steve Bannon, his pick as senior counselor to the president, is the executive chairman of Breitbart News, a hub of the fringe alt-right movement known for its racism and anti-Semitism; and Mike Pompeo, his pick for director of the CIA, is a conservative fourth-term Kansas senator and member of the Tea Party, who has been accused of being anti-Muslim and having participated in a racist political campaign.
This is far from the Election victory speech in which Trump promised: “I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans.”
Yet Trump, who has yet to show any real leadership and speak out against the rising incidents of hate, choose to attack the cast of “Hamilton” on Twitter for their statement to the Vice President who attended the show of Friday night, Nov. 18, 2016.
“We, sir — we — are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights,” he said. “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us,” Brandon Victor Dixon, the actor who played Aaron Burr, stated after acknowledging Mike Pence was in the audience and thanking him for attending the show.
Trump, in dictatorial fashion took to Twitter on Saturday morning to say that the “Hamilton” cast had “harassed” Pence by making the statement and had been “very rude.”
“Apologize!” Trump wrote at the end of one of two tweets on the matter.
Nice going President Drumph! Slam our constitutional right to free speech but ignore the racists committing crimes in your name all across the country.
President for all of America my foot! It’s time to show real leadership and deliver on your victory promise and heal the divide now. That’s the only way America will stay great.
The writer is CMO of Hard Beat Communications, Inc.
