Obama win prompts outbreak of racist actions

AP reports on a disturbing rash of racial incidents following the election of Barack Obama as president.

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting “Assassinate Obama.” Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the post-election 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.

The incidents include burning crosses in the yards of Obama supporters in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, racist graffiti on homes and cars all over the country and, perhaps worst of all, a general store in Standish, Maine, where local residents were encouraged to join an “Osama Obama Shotgun Pool” and bet $1 on which date Obama would be assassinated on. The bottom of the sign for the contest declared, “Let’s hope someone wins.”

At the University of Alabama, a poster of the Obama family on a professor’s office door was defaced with a racial slur and a death threat. At North Carolina State University, four students admitted to writing “Let’s shoot that n—– in the head” in a campus tunnel. All of these folks can, of course, expect a visit from the FBI or the Secret Service.

The article also cites authorities as saying that Obama has received more threats than any previous president-elect. The Secret Service is going to have its hands full. So far, no such incidents have been reported in Michigan of which we are aware.