The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has been tracking hate crime activity in the U.S. for 30 years, says that more than 400 acts of hateful harassment and intimidation have taken place since Donald Trump’s (s)election as president. The organization tracked the activity through Nov. 14.
Most of the reports involved anti-immigrant incidents (136), followed by anti-black (89) and anti-LGBT (43). Some reports (8) included multiple categories like anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant. The "Trump" category (41) refers to incidents where there was no clear defined target, like the pro-Trump vandalism of a "unity" sign in Connecticut. We also collected 20 reports of anti-Trump intimidation and harassment. [...]
In Oregon:
A Muslim woman was riding the Max to Beaverton in the early afternoon and a group of teenagers went to the corner of the car where she was sitting and got up in her face yelling at her that she was a terrorist, that our new president was going to deport her, that she can't wear her hijab anymore. They got increasingly menacing, and my friend went over and made them get off the train. When they were leaving through the door they tried to spit on her.
Chillingly, many of these acts occurred on the campuses of school children:
Venues of harassment included K-12 schools (99), businesses (76), and universities (67). Common also was vandalism and leafleting on private property (40) and epithets and slurs hurled from moving vehicles (38). [...]
At an elementary school in Texas:
My 13 yo half Filipino daughter was approached by a child she didn't know as she waited to board her bus after school. The young man stated "You're Asian, right? When they see your eyes you are going to be deported" and he walked away. I reported this to my district Superintendent.
Based on the data collected by SPLC, California leads the way in hateful incidents, with 51. Of those, 35 involved in the use of the Swastika. Texas came in second with a total of 30 reported incidents.
As the photo above shows, many in the U.S. are “fighting back” with acts of solidarity. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, after hearing that a female Muslim student was threatened with being set on fire if she did not remove her head covering, a public night time prayer was called by the university’s Muslim Student Association. Dozens of muslim students made prayer on the campus, surrounded by more than 200 student allies who provided protection for them.
THIS is what is meant by solidarity. More please. And thank you.
