SPLC Reports Increase in Hate Incidents Following Trump Election, Six of Which Occurred in Alabama

The Southern Poverty Law Center reports an increase in incidents of hate, intimidation, and harassment following the 2016 Presidential Election; the majority of which included the perpetrators invoking Donald Trump's name or campaign slogans. 

The SPLC published a special report, Ten Days After: Harassment and Intimidation in the Aftermath of the Election, yesterday. 867 hate incidents were reported in the ten days after the 2016 election. All of the incidents included in the report were sent directly to the SPLC from victims or were documented via news reports. (Note that many of these reports contain vulgar language and hate speech.)

In Pike County, an interracial couple was targeted in a hate crime. The report offers a harrowing description of what happened to them:

In Brundidge, Alabama, an interracial couple found a gun target tacked to the front door of their restaurant with a pair of nooses hung on either side. A white couple with eleven adopted black children were the object of a letter that read, “You and yours need to stay separate — NOT EQUAL."

Other incidents in Alabama included the Ku Klux Klan's distribution of flyers praising Trump's election and vowing to "uphold his campaign promises," an incident at a school in Madison involving antisemitic, anti-immigrant, and pro-Trump comments, an incident in a Fort Rucker government building, and a Tuscaloosa math teacher's depiction of Trump propaganda in his classroom. al.com also describes another incident that occurred at an unnamed school:

"A teacher claimed in a tweet that a young man brought in a Trump sign into a class and "told a black student that now it's time for him to get back in place."

The Southern Poverty Law Center's report includes descriptions of incidents from across the nation; a few excerpts are listed below.

African Americans have been frequently targeted with harassment featuring references of Trump and his campaign. A note left in the bathroom of an Iowa university read, “TRUMP 2016 Lets (sic) Run those Niggers and Illegals out of town.” In Nevada, a cashier reported a customer approaching the counter to ask her, “Why so sad? Now that Trump has won, you can all go back to Africa!” In San Diego, a driver yelled at a person crossing the street, “Fucking nigger, go back to Africa! The slave ship is loading up! TRUMP!” One woman reported that a man in a Trump hat approached her at a diner and laughed as he motioned to her biracial daughter, “You’re gonna have to send that one back now.”

[...]

Muslim Americans are frequently characterized as terrorists. In Nashville, a white man in a truck hurled racial slurs at a woman wearing a hijab while she waited for the bus with her son. “Go back to your fucking country and take your terrorist son with you,” he said as he drove away. In El Cajon, California, a business received a typed note that read: “BE PREPARED TO GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY WITH ISIS…DONALD TRUMP WILL KICK ALL OF YOUR ASS BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM.”

At a hospital in Chicago, a woman reported that a man in the elevator looked at her and said, “Fuckin’ sand-nigger. Thank God Trump is now president. He’s gonna deport your terrorist ass.”

[...]

Since the election, LGBT people have experienced harassment by those who allege that the president-elect shares their anti-LGBT sentiments. In Brighton, Michigan, a woman was approached by two white men who told her, “Just so you know, we hate fucking dykes and so does our President.” In Russellville, Arkansas, a woman found a note written on a piece of trash taped to her door, which read, “Trump says get back in the closet, fags!”

In Sarasota, Florida, a 75-year-old gay man was ripped from his car and beaten by an assailant who told him, “You know my new president says we can kill all you faggots now.”

[...]

Women — about 5% of the total reports — reported that boys and men around the country are parroting the president-elect’s sexist and vulgar comments from the now-notorious 2005 audio tape. In Minneapolis, middle-school boys leaned out of a school bus to yell, “Grab her by the pussy!” to a man walking with a female colleague. A 50 year-old woman from Venice, California, reported that she had not been “catcalled” in over 20 years. The day after the election, three white men in a pickup truck bearing a Trump sticker shouted at her, “Do you want us to grab your pussy?”

In Arlington, Virginia, a woman crossing the street reported that two young white men yelled at her from their car: “You better be ready because with Trump, we can grab you by the pussy even if you don’t want it.” In New York, a girl on her way to school reported that a man on the subway told her he was “allowed to grab my pussy because it’s legal now."

A woman in Spokane, Washington, reported that she encountered young men who she described as being “‘liberated’ from normal behavior since the election.” They shouted “We’re going to rape you!” from a Jeep with the word “TRUMP” emblazoned on its side.

[...]

In the wake of the election, we recorded 100 anti-Semitic incidents, about 12% of the total recorded. The figure includes 80 vandalism and graffiti incidents of swastikas, without specific references to Jews.

Swastikas have been scrawled in public spaces, schools, driveways, and on people’s cars and garage doors. Many of these incidents simply feature a swastika and a reference to the president-elect.

Other incidents involving swastikas are more clearly anti-Semitic. In Vermont, members of Havurah Synagogue found swastikas drawn on the temple’s front door in the week following the election. In Chicago, a man wearing a yarmulke was called a “kike.” While looking for Hanukkah decorations, a parent and her 2-year-old child in Bel Air, Maryland., were called “fucking Jews” by another shopper.

[...]

Of the 867 hate incidents collected by the SPLC, 23 were anti-Trump. In the days following the election, there were far fewer reports of anti-Trump harassment and intimidation than there were of the other types of harassment catalogued in this report; however, the small number of anti-Trump incidents may also reflect the fact that Trump supporters may have been unlikely to report incidents to the SPLC.

You can read the full report from the Southern Poverty Law Center HERE.