Racist grafitti spray painted on a softball field dugout in Wellsville, NY. Photo courtesy of Brian Quinn/Wellsville Daily Reporter
It’s been just two days since Americans moved to elect Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States and already undercover bigots have emerged to commit shameful acts of racism against anxiety-filled African-Americans and other minorities across the country.
On Wednesday, the words “Make America White Again” accompanied by a large swastika were scrawled onto a softball field dugout in Wellsville, New York. According to the Wellsville Daily Reporter, a man walking his dog in Island Park Wednesday morning stumbled upon the deplorable graffiti and contacted the local paper.
Tim O’Grady, the police chief of Wellsville Village, said the department hadn’t received any complaints about the graffiti, so there wasn’t much they could really do about it.
“We’ll take a look at it, we might do a log entry,” O’Grady told the Wellsville Daily Reporter. “Unless somebody makes a complaint, we don’t have any cause for action. It’s vandalism, we’ll look into it. I don’t know what the [surveillance] camera situation is on the other side of the river.”
Fortunately, a group of concerned citizens banded together later that day to paint over the hateful words.
“There’s enough bad going on in the world,” said volunteer Skip Carter. “Wellsville people are always good at getting things done.”
Just two hours north of Wellsville, a Black baby doll with what appeared to be a noose around its neck was found in the elevator of a freshman dorm at Buffalo’s Canisius College. Buffalo News reports that the incident prompted an immediate response from college president John Hurley, who called the act “despicable.”
This baby doll was found in a freshman elevator last night at Canisius. I don't care who you are or what your beliefs are this is awful pic.twitter.com/oBht011YGR
— Jordan Roth (@Baby_Jay1221) November 9, 2016
“We will hold responsible whoever perpetuated this despicable act that goes against everything for which Canisius College stands,” Hurley wrote in a letter to students, staff and faculty. “I cannot condemn this act strongly enough. “This cannot and will not be tolerated on the Canisius campus.”
“We have been working this year on improving our campus culture and making it one in which all of our students of color feel equal, valued and respected and where we truly embrace and celebrate diversity as a strength,” he continued. “I am totally committed to working with our students, faculty and staff to foster an environment at Canisius that is respectful, welcoming and safe.”
Meanwhile, over in Pennsylvania, parents and students at York County Technical High School reported several racially-charged incidents sparked Trump’s election to the presidency. Some parents were even forced to remove their kids from school because of the racial slurs being hurled at them by white students.
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/796715777541935109
More racist graffiti was found scrawled in the bathroom of a Minnesota high school.
Overnight, someone spray painted the words “Black Lives Don’t Matter and Neither Do Your Votes” on a wall in Durham, North Carolina.
Someone spray painted "Black lives don't matter and neither does your votes" on a wall in Durham overnight. pic.twitter.com/Idfm5T8RFg
— Derrick Lewis (@DerrickLewisTV) November 9, 2016
And at Southern Illinois University, student found cause to celebrate Trump’s stunning victory by posing in black face on social media app Snap Chat.
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/796750646196191233
Critics have argued that the inflammatory, racist rhetoric spewed by Trump prior to his historic presidential win Tuesday night has made his bigoted supporters comfortable with doing the same. Protests against the political upset have since broken out in major cities across America, as frustrated citizens took to the streets to denounce the system that put a racist real estate tycoon turned politician in the highest office in the country.
“I’m fucking terrified of this whole thing,” Margaret Gibson, a freshman at the University of Oregon, told The Tab Oregon. “The mission is to raise support that Donald Trump cannot be our president.”
“I think the whole point of this protest is to get awareness that Donald Trump just won,” Gibson continued. “The whole world as we know it for minorities will be uprooted and destroyed as well as our whole economic system and morals being exposed to the world in such a bad way.”
