HATE
IS ON THE RISE IN AMERICA…
By
Carla Feinkind (HAIR ON FIRE IS BACK!)
Data collected by the FBI, the Southern
Poverty Law Center, the Anti-Defamation League, and various universities have
documented that until Trump's 2015 election campaign, reported hate crimes had
never risen above 1500 a year. But by 2018, reported hate crimes climbed to
2000! Indications are that in 2019
numbers will be higher again.
What
were those hate crimes?
·
Bullying in person or online for religious,
racial or sexual identity
·
Acts of vandalism: to personal property, to cemeteries, to Houses
of worship
·
Acts of violence: Driving into marches, attacking
and beating people in religious garb, beating people of other races, burning
black churches, shooting up black churches, mosques, synagogues, and other houses
of worship
From 2016-2017 Hate crimes
rose by 17%. In 2017 the DOJ documented 7175 hate crimes:
Of those, 2013 were hate
crimes against Blacks, 102 crimes against Arabs, 427 crimes against Hispanics,
938 Anti-Jewish acts, 273 Anti-Muslim acts.
1130 hate crimes were recorded against homosexuals. These are the largest categories of all recorded
incidents. NOT ALL incidents are recorded.
WHY
is this happening?
Factually, the rise coincides
with Trump's campaign and administration. Counties that hosted Trump rallies in
2016 saw hate crimes rise by 226%!!
President Trump saw "very good people on both sides" of the
KKK/ Nazi rally in Charlottesville that killed Heather Heyer who was protesting
the hate rally. Trump has welcomed the
support of White Nationalist leaders like David Duke. Even the shooter in New Zealand referred to
Trump as a "renewed symbol of white identity" before he shot up a mosque.
Trump uses hate to gather and
solidify his base (basket). Like Hitler, Trump uses and manipulates hate for
political gain. “BE AFRAID--THEY ARE
INVADING US", and Trump's supporters screamed, "THEY WILL NOT REPLACE
US."
But,
why is the GOP so silent?
Southern voters had been FDR
New Deal Dems. But, by the 1960's the
Democrats were the party of civil rights and those rights kept growing! So, in 1981, Lee Atwater, Reagan's campaign
director, developed his Southern Strategy to attract the southern whites. He knew you could not say the N word, so his strategy
was to dog whistle hate. Remember Reagan's “Welfare Queens”, "Takers"
and Busing? Since then, the GOP has been
dog whistling hate. Some presidents have
whistled with greater gusto, but none more so than Trump.
Trump rode that escalator
ranting about really bad Mexicans rapists and drug dealers, and he has ramped
up the hate each time he needed to distract from some unpleasantness like the Mueller
probe.
Why
does it matter?
HATE LINGERS! HATE METASTISIZES! The numbers show that what started with
Mexicans and Muslims flowed onto Jews and Homosexuals, etc.
We just honored the memory of
the 6 million Jews that the Nazis slaughtered and the millions who were merely
starved, tortured and enslaved...Many survivors were the sole survivors of
their families.
REMEMBER the Holocaust did NOT
begin with concentration camps and gas chambers. The Holocaust began with endlessly spewed and manipulated HATE. NOT every German was a Nazi hater/killer. BUT,
too many looked away. Too many went
along to get along. The few who stood
against hate were isolated and eventually sent to the camps with those they
tried to defend.
What
can we do?
We must BUILD a BLUE WAVE to
wash out Trump's hate AND the complicit GOP that has watched and benefited from
the hate. WE MUST also DENOUNCE ALL the
haters and their hate.
The Skokie Holocaust Center
teaches, “Don 't be a By Stander! Be an Up Stander!” Stand Up to hate against everyone. It is NOT just
about dead Jews 70 years ago! WE ARE FACING VERY DANGEROUS HATE NOW! History teaches us that later is often too
late! IF NOT NOW, WHEN?
