The word “Trump” with a swastika replacing the T was one of several pro-Trump or Nazi messages found on buildings in South Philadelphia hours after Donald Trump became president-elect. Photo courtesy of NBC10.
It’s only been one week since Republican Donald Trump emerged victorious in the race for the White House, but already several reports of hate crimes against Blacks and other minorities across the country have come pouring in.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit organization that monitors hate groups in the U.S., over 300 acts of “hateful harassment and intimidation” have been reported since Trump’s Election-Day win. This is usually the amount they see over a five- or six-month period.
“Since Donald Trump won the election, we’ve seen an alarming number of hate-based incidents occur throughout the nation, some of which are no doubt stemming from Trump’s hate-filled campaign,” the SPLC told ThinkProgress in a statement. “We’ve collected more than 315 such incidents since the election — truly a frightening number.”
The organization said the incidents ranged from anti-woman to anti-LGBT harassment, but a large majority of the reported attacks were anti-Black and anti-immigrant. Reported acts of violence and intimidation against Muslims came in a close third, according to SPLC data.
According to ThinkProgress, experts say the period following this year’s intense presidential election might see the worst surge in hate crimes and violence since the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks.
“We already had been worse based on the fact that Donald Trump had mainstreamed Islamophobia … and this was just taking it off the charts,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.”
Another troubling trend observed by the SPLC is that a large number of these hateful acts are occurring in elementary, middle and high schools across the country. The stunning results of the presidential election have seemingly exacerbated racial tensions among K-12 students.
For instance, someone scrawled the words “KILL KILL KILL BLACKS” on the bathroom wall of an elementary school in Silver Spring, Maryland. The hate-filled message, found early Friday morning, was immediately removed by maintenance personnel, a Montgomery Public Schools official told WUSA 9 news.
More racist graffiti touting messages like “F-ck n-ggers” and “#GoBackToAfrica” was also found in the bathrooms of Maple Grove Senior High in Minnesota, Atlanta Black Star reported.
But the deplorable acts of racism and intimidation haven’t stopped there.
On Sunday, a Black woman in Des Moines, Iowa, came home to find the words “white power” written in permanent ink on the front door of her apartment. Police are still searching for a suspect(s), USA Today reports.
“It’s hurtful and disrespectful,” 20-year-old Kirsten Grant told the Des Moines Register. “I pay my rent the same as everybody else. Why do I have to have ‘white power’ on my door? … I’m no different than anybody else.”
Near Anaheim, California, a bystander reported a hate crime to the SPLC in which, “white males in a black Ford truck were calling a black family in the vehicle next to them n***ers and yelling that it was Trump’s country now. The truck sped off before I could get license info,” the bystander said.
Then, at Southern Illinois University, students decided to celebrate Trump’s stunning victory by posing in Black face on social media app Snaphat.
White students @ Southern Illinois University (@SIUC) decided to put on blackface and pose in front of a Confederate Flag to celebrate Trump pic.twitter.com/OEP2yEW3So
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) November 10, 2016
These are just a few of the many instances of bigotry and hate reportedly fueled by president-elect Trump AFTER he was elected president of the United States. There were also a series of hate crimes committed against minorities leading up to the unprecedented election win.
The SPLC reports that many reported incidents, though not all, involved direct references to the Trump campaign. In an on-air interview with “60 Minutes” over the weekend, the president-elect urged his supporters to “stop it” — stop committing acts of violence and intimidation in his name.
But many argue that Trump’s request comes a little too late. The damage has already been done.
