A new report published on Tuesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center claims there was a “national outbreak of hate” in the days following the election of Donald Trump. The report documents 867 “hate incidents” that occurred in nearly all 50 states, although the group acknowledges “it was not possible to confirm the veracity of all reports.”
“The 867 hate incidents described here come from two sources — submissions to the #ReportHate page on the SPLC website and media accounts,” the report states.
The incidents are broken down into a number of categories, including anti-immigrant, anti-black and anti-muslim incidents. The vast majority of the incidents reportedly occurred at K-12 school and universities, but incidents were also reported to have occurred in workplace/retail settings as well as other public spaces. A smaller number of incidents are alleged to have occurred at places of worship or in private settings.
A common example of what the SPLC claims to have occurred is found in a report described as coming from a woman in Louisiana:
I was standing at a red light waiting to cross the street. A black truck with three white men pulled up to the red light. One of them yelled, “Fuck your black life!” The other two began to laugh. One began to chant “Trump!” as they drove away.
More than half of the reports, 506 to be exact, came in the three days following Trump’s victory, according to the report’s findings. The reports of hate incidents seemingly became less frequent in the week that followed.
The SPLC links Trump to the alleged outbreak of hate because “harassers invoked Trump’s name during assaults, making it clear that the outbreak of hate stemmed in large part from his electoral success.”
They further argue this should come as no surprise to Trump because waged “a campaign marked by incendiary racial statements, the stoking of white racial resentment, and attacks on so-called ‘political correctness.'”
The group said it now up to Trump to do something more than looking into the camera during an interview on 60 Minutes and telling supporters to “stop it” if he truly wants to repair he damage caused by his campaign strategy.
[image via screengrab]
