Last week, seven teenagers went out on a modern-day lynching because they had an urge “to beat up some Mexicans.” Ecuadorian immigrant, Marcello Lucero, was killed in what Suffolk Police are calling a hate crime. He was murdered at the hands of of seven high school students in Patchogue, New York, who were targeting for Latinos that night, according to the testimony the students gave to the police after they were arrested.

That was the subject of today’s conference call hosted by the Workplace Project, Long Island Immigrant Alliance, New York Immigration Coalition, and the National Council of La Raza.

The death of Lucero is cause for great concern because this is the latest expression of hate that is not only happening in Long Island, but in the nation as a whole. The tragic death of this man must be seen as an urgent warning and call to action.

What we are experiencing is not just an immigrant or Latino issue, but this “hate” has also spread to the African-American community as well. Racism is a serious problem in America. Police has already documented a range of disturbing incidents since the election. These incidents range from vandalism and vague threats to physical attacks. More disturbing, these insults and taunts have been delivered by people from all age groups; from adults to young adults to small children. These are just some of the incidents being reported: (h/t to jobsanger, James of The Mahatma X Files, and Nez of The Unapologetic Mexican)

* Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: “Let’s shoot that (N-word) in the head.”
* At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: “Osama Obama Shotgun Pool.” Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. “Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count,” the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written “Let’s hope someone wins.”
* Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted “assassinate Obama,” a district official said.
* University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. “It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork,” Houston said.
* Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported.
* Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacon Township, PA
* A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted ‘Obama.’
* In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying “now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house.”

These are just a few of the hundreds of incidents occurring across the country. In Texas, we have our fair share of anti-Obama and anti-immigration racism. On the campus of Baylor University in Waco, TX, a rope resembling a noose was found hanging from a campus tree the day the nation’s first black president was elected into office. A thin, white rope tied with a loop at the end was found by a Baylor student hanging from a tree. Earlier that week, there were reports that students made a barbecue pit bonfire out of Barack Obama campaign signs. University president is now reporting that the rope was apparently an abandoned rope swing and is also denying students were burning Obama signs in a barbecue pit.

In Austin, TX, it was reported that member of the University of Texas football team was expelled from the team for posting a very racist remark that crossed the line to eliminationism about President-elect Barack Obama on his Facebook page. On the status update section of his Facebook page, Buck Burnette posted, “All the hunters gather up, we have a n* in the White House.”

These incidents are just limited to Barack Obama. Just before the election, in Colorado County, west of Houston, TX, people were outraged over a racist theme party that involved at least one area school teacher after pictures surfaced onto the internet. The pictures were from taken at a pre-Halloween party in the small town of Garwood, TX. They portray white men in “black face” drinking 40-ounce bottles of beer and carrying buckets of fried chicken.

More troubling is the way our law enforcement is contributing to this problem. Last week, a Montgomery County, TX deputy was under fire following comments he made concerning the killing of 17 year old, Eugene Posana Villaruel. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) demanded an apology after Montgomery County spokesman Lt. Dan Norris said the Hispanic culture played a part in the teenager’s murder.

“You can fill in the blanks with Hispanic culture and how they, meaning the Hispanic culture, sometimes deal with family, sometimes thinks and or deals with family issues,” Norris said last week.

Last night, it was reported that the father of Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver was in critical condition after Houston police beat him after being stopped for outstanding traffic warrants. According to the family, he can communicate through notes and has described “the torture he went through.”

Community activist Quanell X showed reporters the paper towels Marvin Driver wrote on from his hospital bed. Driver wrote that the officers, whom he said he knew personally, took him to a Valero station, kicked him in the stomach, elbowed him in the neck and forced something down his throat.

“They picked him up and took him behind a Valero station by a dark road, where he was beaten and forced to swallow something. What they gave him to swallow, he said that they made the statement that he was going to see Jesus. Told him to ‘Swallow this. You’re going to see Jesus,’” Quanell X said.

There are endless examples of this, and they continue to this day. The one example that continues to stay fresh to this day is the tragic and brutal beating of David Ritcheson, Latino teen who was brutally beaten, tortured, and sodomized with a plastic pole by two white racist teenagers.

Tuck and Turner began kicking, beating, and stomping [David Ritcheson], Tuck wearing black, steel-toe boots, one of which was emblazoned with a swastika. Yelling “Beaner!” and other racial epithets, Tuck inflicted most of the damage. After one especially vicious kick, Tuck shouted “White power!” and gave a Nazi salute. Unable to fight back or defend himself in any way, [Ritcheson] just lay there and took it, mumbling and groaning occasionally.

Americans are proud that we are people with different backgrounds, faiths, viewpoints, and personal characteristics. A nation with a long history of slavery, segregation, and violent forms of racism, a country has finally came together and elected its first African-American president. However, outside of the public view, the number of hate crimes taking place in the US is on the rise.

Whether intended or not, we are in the midst of a growing culture of hate. If we want to continue to extol the virtues of freedom and rail against oppression, then it is vital as a Nation that we must prevent ourselves from falling destructively under the influence of racist schemes that that are dividing our nation.

Related posts

• The Racist Heiress America Loves and Hates and Our Criminal Justice System (17)
• People Stop The Noose Insanity (3)
• Hate Crimes: The New Politics of Racism (20)
• Farmers Branch, TX: The New All-American Sundown Town (7)
• The Words We Use: The Rhetoric of Race (13)

Tags: African Americans, David Ritcheson, Eliminationism, hate crimes, Latinos/as, Marcello Lucero, Racism |  Print This Post |
functional