Kristin SF, I like that you took action. And the late night monologues are helping me through it all also.
RobinF, I'm glad our eyes are being further opened, but I wouldn't wish these incidents on these innocent people.
Mochi, I am so sorry that those you know are being affected. Please remind them that the majority do not feel this way, or act this way.
Rabbit, thanks for the detailed assessment of what happened during the protests, and how people are working to fix it.
Texstyle, Rabbit said much what I was going to say, but she knew a lot more about it than me.
The same criminals attached themselves to happy celebrations, like those after teams win sporting championships.
There may be faked hate crimes, but it is important to note that the proportion is very small compared to the actual hate crimes, and the actual discrimination people face on a daily basis.
Just like rape and domestic violence, other hate crimes go under reported. Having known people who did not report each of these, I know this.
When my son found a swastika on his dorm room door, it was handled internally at his college. The good news was it was taken seriously and there was a floor meeting about it. The bad news was it happened again. But it was not reported beyond campus security, so it doesn't show up in statistics. And this incident is minor compared to what happens.
Yes, things are much better than they were 50 years ago. It sounds like especially where you grew up. I know that things were way worse. I could detail my friends who were attacked regularly, and my DH's family who had to flee Europe. And it is important to acknowledge improvements and to put things in context.
However, as people finally started speaking up after the shootings, I, who live in a bubble, began to see that things are much worse than I knew. Senator Tim Scott's experience was surprising to me, but not to other people of color, as evidenced by so many, many people. I am grateful to the people who finally began telling the truth about what their life experience was like, and I am sobered by what they have to say. And I am getting educated.
The hate that has been unleashed since the election has been sickening and eye-opening. Some people now feel free to say and do things that were widely understood to be completely unacceptable.
I agree with almost everything in the post by pastor John Pavlovitz. Except, I know people who believe in the traditional Republican platform, who are anti-choice, etc. and voted for the president-elect for those reasons. Who voted for him for him because of the Supreme Court, etc. They did not vote for him because of hate. And I think that is important to remember.
It is also important to remember that a lot of people didn't vote.
It is important to remember all this as we grapple with all this means, to keep a vision of how we want this country to be, to help the US be the best it can be. A real best, not code for back in time. To acknowledge how far we have come, and to work hard for a more perfect world.
Note, this is a sanitized version. It helps to read the original link to Shaun King's twitter account to understand the depth of the hate and the dangerousness ways it is being expressed. Death threats. Rainbow flags attached to houses being set on fire. Women being groped. Verbal assaults, even in elementary schools.
We must do better.
