Pin sold at Texas Republican Convention, June 2008. However, it was banned later and the head of Texas GOP said that they will “neither tolerate nor profit from bigotry.” (CNN)
Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting “Assassinate Obama.” Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.
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.
Vote by Race:
White: Obama (43%), McCain (55%)
African-American: Obama (95%), McCain (4%)
Latino: Obama (66%), McCain (32%)
Asian: Obama (61%), McCain (35%)
Other: Obama (65%), McCain (31%)
Source: CNN
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.
Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: “Let’s shoot that (N-word) in the head.” Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.
At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: “Osama Obama Shotgun Pool.” Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. “Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count,” the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written “Let’s hope someone wins.”
Racist graffiti was found in places including New York’s Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and “Go Back To Africa” were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.
Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted “assassinate Obama,” a district official said.
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.
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.”
“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.”
“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.”
Read full article: Yahoo News
Kitsune's Thoughts 
I had heard that during McCain’s concession speech a member of the crowd yelled “let’s lynch him” or something to that extent.
It’s really depressing but very true…
Ugh. This stuff is so sick. Always succeeds in making me want to throw those sorts people off of a bridge.
But no need for that anymore. Racism is still around, but now we have our solid evidence that they’re outnumbered.
It’s fun to know that their hate is causing them to suffer so much too. Live in misery you intolerant fools knowing that you are officially less important than someone you consider inferior!
Llelangir,
Yes, it is a sad state of affairs… During one of McCain speeches someone shouted “Terrorist” and even “Kill Him” referring to Obama (I couldn’t hear the latter).
– – –
FuyuMaiden,
Yes, these acts can elicit such reactions. I wonder how the situation can be changed… An advice from Nelson Mandela is one of the ways to approach the problem: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
What a sad (and scary) reflection on the utter ignorance and deep-seated racism in some parts of the united states.
Obama being elected is a great leap forward but it does not mean prejudice and discrimination is magically erased from the pages of america. It’s still there and as frightful as ever.
Yes, it will take sometime to eradicate prejudice, but we are slowly moving in the right direction.
If Obama is a good president it will greatly help in ending white racism. And I think Obama knows that he has the added burden of being the first so, even though I voted McCain and don’t agree with much of Obama’s policies, I hope he does a good job and am cautiously optimistic that he will.
I did like the news that he appointed two Net-neutrality people to oversee the FCC part of his transition team.
And as angry as those people make me feel, I do want to point out that 43% of whites did vote against their color but only 4% of blacks did.
It’s hard to take these people seriously when they had posted signs like “Don’t elect the Muslin”. (Yes, muslin.) Of course, stupid does not mean they are not dangerous, but damn they are stupid.
My attention got snagged by the statistics you posted (rather than the rest of the stuff…). It’s kind of funny, because Chinese people are pretty racist (well, I think it’s more racist+nationalist+crazy) but unlike Americans, they all think in $$$ all the time. In a discussion with my mother, I asked her who she would vote for, and she said Obama because “Republicans don’t give a damn about poor people”. She’s been here for four administrations, and I guess she had it best under Clinton.
@Kitsune – I dunno about racists being “outnumbered” in western Ireland unfortunately. I live rather close to the town of Ballyhaunis which would have one of the largest populations of non-nationals in Ireland due to being the only town outside Dublin with a mosque (unless my data is outdated).
I find a small group are fairly openly racist, blaming the stupidest things on “Feckin’ foreigners”. These are usually the elderly, who can be somewhat excused due to not being a group known for adapting to change, but the other group is teenagers aged 16+. It’s hard to defend country folk from ridicule if you actually heard some of the bull these guys spout.
The other group is the one satirized on South Park, the one’s who claim not to be racist, but can’t accept any jokes etc. on TV because they’re “not funny”. We’re all the same and the members of this category don’t seem to realize this. I’m sure you know what I’m on about.
I had a rather large blog post nearly finished recently, but lost it due to a power cut on thi subject, sparked by seeing a notice in my local Supervalu saying “House cleaner wanted: Polish preferred”. A lot of my friends couldn’t see why this annoyed me. It wasn’t that a Polish person, assuming they had bad english wanted a polish house cleaner, it was that if a similar notice was put up saying “House cleaner wanted: Irish preferred” there would be a outcry!
Thenullset,
Yes, Obama’s potentially good presidency might help alleviate racism.
I wonder how whites would have voted if the situation was reversed…
– – –
Dramatis,
Heh, some of the signs I’ve seen were quite appalling…
Oh, I really enjoyed going through the entire set of descriptives posted on CNN 🙂 I encourage you to take a look 😉
I am quite surprised you are saying such things about Chinese people… Perhaps, the community around you is not very good? Over the years, I met and worked directly with many people from China of various ages (immigrants from China, not those who were born in the US), but my experience does not match yours.
Economy was a major issue this election, and many people might have voted with similar attitude as your mother, but it is best to consider multiple issues when making such an important decision. Her assessment is a little extreme also.
– – –
Thomas Geraghty,
Thank you for sharing your experience. Too bad you lost the post 😦 If you used the WordPress window to write it, you might have an auto-saved draft copy.
It sounds like you live in a city where racism is quite prevalent… If people can learn to avoid cognitive biases, the situation might improve, but it won’t be easy. Aaron Beck, a father of cognitive therapy, applied the principles of psychotherapy on the level of society. I can’t recall the details now, but he applied the technique successfully on one of the cities in Ireland I believe. Probably, he talks about it in his book Prisoners of Hate: The Cognitive Basis of Anger, Hostility, and Violence.
I knew something like this was going to happen.
We were supposed to vote not because we prefer/dislike one color over another, but because we prefer what that person can do for the country.
Somehow, I get the feeling some people did not get past the skin color.
Yes, for some people it remains a barrier, but I hope it will fall eventually, just like other walls in the 20th century. If we look back at history, we’ve made some progress.