Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Sun editorial:

As Trump-fueled hate crimes flare, here’s how to help put out the fire

The predictable yet horrific effects of President Donald Trump’s racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric are being felt across the nation.

It’s happening in places like Arvada, Colo., a predominantly white community where the Center for Investigative Journalism recently focused on a black family as part of a story on hate crimes and bigotry.

The family told reporters that before the 2016 election, they experienced isolated incidents of racism, like hearing “the occasional backwater person” use a racial slur.

But since Trump was elected, the boys all have been been subjected to racist abuse. The family’s oldest son, 13, was told by a classmate that Trump’s election meant he could “shoot as many black people in the back as I want.” The youngest, 10, recounted how a boy placed blocks between a group of white students and students of color on the playground and said, “This is Trump’s wall.”

And there’s more. A spokeswoman for the Arvada school district said it had experienced an increase in complaints about racial and political taunting since the election.

That’s just one school district; a very small corner of a large country. But what happened there was not isolated.

ProPublica has charted the extent of the trend through its Documenting Hate project, which has confirmed 800 reports of hate crimes from more than 5,100 tips through a network of 161 newsrooms.

Of those 800 reports, the Center for Investigative Journalism reported last month that 150 included references to Trump over the past 18 months. The victims were people like a gay man in Michigan who was told by a group of taunters that “Trump is going to get rid of people like you,” and a Muslim American employee at New York’s JFK airport who was approached by a white man who knelt to mock Muslim prayer and shouted, “Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you.”

And those are just the incidents that have been reported. Undoubtedly, many more go unreported — maybe most.

This is infuriating. Unacceptable. Trump, far from fulfilling the mission written on his campaign hats, is pushing the nation backward and stoking its ugliest impulses.

That said, this isn’t a hopeless situation.

Far from it.

In another coast-to-coast phenomenon, many Americans are countering Trump’s ugliness with compassion, decency and an absolute refusal to sit idly while hatred flares up. As a result, no one has to be alone in speaking out or reporting an act of racism.

Anti-racism organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have mobilized by providing tips and resources online for people who want to take action. The organizations’ websites offer such features as a tool to urge congressional delegates to support the NO HATE Act to improve hate crime reporting and data collection, and a set of talking points that can be sent to media outlets via email and social media.

A few broad tips include reporting every incident, getting involved in community organizations and pressuring leaders for policy and legal reforms (see resource list below).

Knowing that Americans are being hurt by the ramifications of Trump’s fear-mongering and racial scapegoating can be disillusioning. But more than ever, it’s critical that we watch out for each other — and stand up for each other.

Tip sites

• splcenter.org/20170814/ten-ways-fight-hate-community-response-guide

• adl.org/education/resources/tools-and-strategies/10-things-you-can-do-to-combat-hate

Community organizations

• NAACP Las Vegas, the local branch of the national organization: naacplasvegas.com

• Showing Up for Racial Justice, a national network with a Las Vegas affiliate that encourages white Americans to advocate for racial equality: showingupforracialjustice.org

• League of United Latin American Citizens, the largest and oldest Latino advocacy organization in the U.S.: lulac.org

• Anti-Defamation League’s Las Vegas office: lasvegas.adl.org

• Unite Here, the labor union that serves as the national umbrella organization for the Las Vegas Culinary Union: Culinaryunion226.org