Edited by Bridgette Blight
Obama’s Election Stirring Up Racism
Published in Le Figaro
(France) on 28 November 2008
by Adèle Smith (link to original)
The first Black President’s arrival at the White House has triggered a wave of racist reactions throughout the country.
Three weeks after he was savagely beaten up by youngsters, Ali Kamara is still afraid of a new aggression. On the election night, the young man, originally from Liberia, was coming back from a friend’s when four men under the age of 20 came close to him and hit him on the head, the body and the legs with a baseball bat, shouting "Obama" at the same time. Two of them have been handed over to a tribunal and accused of a hate crime, but the two others are still on the run. Kamara is afraid that they will try to take revenge for their friends.
"I know they’re around and I have my misgivings," said the 17-year-old teenager, showing the injuries on his head.
According to Ali, just being alive is a miracle. He now prefers staying in his neighborhood, listening to rap with his friends at the foot of the building he lives in rather than venturing too far away. He’s convinced that he was assaulted because of the color of his skin.
“Youngsters with an empty brain”
However, his stepfather tries not to use the word "racism" when talking about the attack. He wants to avoid causing anger among the neighborhood's black community, which already is in a furious state of mind.
"These youngsters have an empty brain," Ismael Ladepo said, referring to Kamara’s attackers. What you have to keep in mind, he said, is that America, a widely White country, has elected a Black man as a president.
"That’s a huge step forward," Ladepo said.
Many blacks in Staten Island still openly discuss the latent racism of this borough, which is, on both a political and ethnic level, different from the rest of New York City. In this new Democratic ocean, Staten Island’s population was the only one to vote for McCain on November 4.
The borough is 77 percent white, usually blue collar workers stemming from German and Italian immigrants, with rather conservative values. As a comparison, New York City is up to 35 percent white (27 percent are hispanics, 25 percent are blacks and 12 percent are asians).
Mo Wilson said that this is the explanation to many things happening. It is precisely in front of the window of this barber’s salon in Bay Street that Kamara’s attackers started going around these black neighborhoods, uttering racist insults.
"There are neighborhoods in Staten Island where you’re not welcome if the color of your skin is black, there’s so much segregation over here," Wilson said.
“Get back to Africa”
Except for another violent attack, which cost an Ecuadorian man his life, hundreds of other spoken or written attacks with a racist connotation have happened since Nov. 4, according the Southern Poverty Law Center, specializing in racist crimes.
In North Carolina, some students have written in a tunnel: "You must fire a bullet in this negro’s head"; in Los Angeles, the message “Get back to Africa” was tagged on some houses and cars. Youngsters have even sung “Murder Obama” in a bus in Idaho, and in Maine, a shopkeeper even offered to bet one dollar on the date Obama would be murdered.
Three weeks after he was savagely beaten up by youngsters, Ali Kamara is still afraid of a new aggression. On the election night, the young man, originally from Liberia, was coming back from a friend’s when four men under the age of 20 came close to him and hit him on the head, the body and the legs with a baseball bat, shouting "Obama" at the same time. Two of them have been handed over to a tribunal and accused of a hate crime, but the two others are still on the run. Kamara is afraid that they will try to take revenge for their friends.
"I know they’re around and I have my misgivings," said the 17-year-old teenager, showing the injuries on his head.
According to Ali, just being alive is a miracle. He now prefers staying in his neighborhood, listening to rap with his friends at the foot of the building he lives in rather than venturing too far away. He’s convinced that he was assaulted because of the color of his skin.
“Youngsters with an empty brain”
However, his stepfather tries not to use the word "racism" when talking about the attack. He wants to avoid causing anger among the neighborhood's black community, which already is in a furious state of mind.
"These youngsters have an empty brain," Ismael Ladepo said, referring to Kamara’s attackers. What you have to keep in mind, he said, is that America, a widely White country, has elected a Black man as a president.
"That’s a huge step forward," Ladepo said.
Many blacks in Staten Island still openly discuss the latent racism of this borough, which is, on both a political and ethnic level, different from the rest of New York City. In this new Democratic ocean, Staten Island’s population was the only one to vote for McCain on November 4.
The borough is 77 percent white, usually blue collar workers stemming from German and Italian immigrants, with rather conservative values. As a comparison, New York City is up to 35 percent white (27 percent are hispanics, 25 percent are blacks and 12 percent are asians).
Mo Wilson said that this is the explanation to many things happening. It is precisely in front of the window of this barber’s salon in Bay Street that Kamara’s attackers started going around these black neighborhoods, uttering racist insults.
"There are neighborhoods in Staten Island where you’re not welcome if the color of your skin is black, there’s so much segregation over here," Wilson said.
“Get back to Africa”
Except for another violent attack, which cost an Ecuadorian man his life, hundreds of other spoken or written attacks with a racist connotation have happened since Nov. 4, according the Southern Poverty Law Center, specializing in racist crimes.
In North Carolina, some students have written in a tunnel: "You must fire a bullet in this negro’s head"; in Los Angeles, the message “Get back to Africa” was tagged on some houses and cars. Youngsters have even sung “Murder Obama” in a bus in Idaho, and in Maine, a shopkeeper even offered to bet one dollar on the date Obama would be murdered.