President-elect Donald Trump |
If you are not Asian/American, Pacific Islander, African/American, Latino, Native American or LGBTQ, you might not quite feel the change in our country since Donald Trump was elected president by winning more electoral votes than Hillary Clinton, but believe me, the feeling of tension is palpable.
We are saddened to come to the realization that we are no longer welcome in our own country.
It has only been a couple of days since Nov. 8 and Trump's emboldened supporters have unleashed an avalanche of hate on social media, on school campuses and on the streets. You could be minding your own business, going to class, pumping gas or just walking down the street and you can be accosted verbally or physically.
Jose Antonio Vargas, a gay Filipino/American journalist and an outspoken immigration activist, received a barrage of hateful tweets from Trump supporters, including one calling himself Johnny Deplorable, saying, “You’re getting deported. Better pack up.
”The Lansing State Journal reported: "DeWitt Junior High School in Lansing, Michigan was the sight of another attack. White students formed a human wall and refused to allow Latino students to enter the school. Later that morning other students also laid down to form a wall in the hallways and chanted “build that wall” though no one was blocked at that time.
In Philadelphia, swastikas and Trump’s name (with the T replaced by an additional swastika) were spray-painted on a storefront, including the words “Sieg Heil 2016,' the Nazi salute.
In the Buffalo area, property was defaced with swastikas and the words “Make America White Again.” According to the Buffalo area’s Wellsville Daily Reporter, the Wellsville police chief saw no cause for action. The town is located in Allegany County, where 61 percent of the vote went to Trump, according to New York State Board of Elections.
The Southern Poverty Law Center created a web page on Thursday to funnel the reports of hate attacks, and received more than 200 within 24 hours. They also started an online petition, which had more than 35,000 signatures as of Friday (Nov. 10), asking President-elect Trump to condemn the behavior.
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