More than two weeks after the historic election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, the number of racial attacks, slurs and controversy, including disturbing and racist Internet chatter, continues to slightly undermine the overwhelming ebullience of most Americans from the Obama victory.
Last week, the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) lauded the prompt arrest by New York City police of two teenagers who allegedly assaulted a Staten Island Muslim teen on election night, shortly after it was announced that Obama had won the election. Teens Ralph Nicoletti and Bryan Garaventa were arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime and weapons charges for allegedly beating 17-year-old Ali Kamara on election night while shouting “Obama.”
“We welcome these arrests and thank local law enforcement authorities and the FBI for their prompt and professional response,” said CAIRNY Civil Rights Director Aliya Latif. “This bias-motivated attack should be viewed as a direct challenge to the inclusive nature of our nation’s political process.”
The arrest of the two Staten Island teens by police is viewed by many as an immediate pronouncement by law enforcement and the community that such crimes will not be tolerated.
According to reports from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) – which monitors and exposes extremist activity in all forms, including online – said anger among white supremacists and other right-wing extremists in response to Obama’s win has resulted in an avalanche of virulent and caustic postings on hundreds of extremist web sites. According to some reports, at one point, chatter overloaded servers and caused the most popular and vitriolic white supremacist web site – Stormfront.com – to crash and remain idle for an extended period.
“We always expect a reaction from the bigots when events occur that they believe are contrary to their interest and worldview,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the ADL. “While it’s clear that race didn’t matter to the vast majority of the American people in this election, race matters to racists.”
Foxman said the bulk of the chatter from the extremists’ centers on the fact that so many whites voted for Obama and how incredulous and livid the extremists are at the prospect of having an African- American man at the helm of the United States.
“The amount of invective, anger and rage being vented on white supremacist sites in the aftermath of the election is startling,” Foxman said. “Many are convinced that President- elect Obama’s achievement means that whites have lost their place in America, and they are predicting the beginning of a race war.”
To view a sampling of comments from white supremacist online discussion boards and Internet forums, the Anti-Defamation League has posted several of the comments on its web site, at http://www.adl.org/main_Extremism/rage.htm.
Despite the dire predictions and outlandish racist verbiage, the election of Barack Obama as commander in chief of the United States continues to yield an abundance of praise and solidarity among millions of people.
“President-elect Obama’s ascendancy to leadership represents a teachable moment for the globe that diverse leadership at the very top of an organization can benefit many more constituencies and create greater opportunities,” said Carl Brooks, president and CEO of the revered Executive Leadership Council (ELC) in Virginia. The organization is the nation’s premier leadership organization of the most senior African-American corporate executives in Fortune 500 companies. Obama’s elevation to the President will serve to illuminate the wealth of talent in this country, Brooks said.
