In Donald Trump, America has a presidential candidate who’s called Mexican immigrants rapists who bring drugs and crime into the country.
He talks about Islam only in the context of terrorism. And he once said that Muslim refugees or immigrants should be blocked from entering the US; now he says that they should undergo “extreme vetting.”
When the person seeking the highest office in government talks like that, it’s bound to embolden bigots; it creates a space where they feel safe to give voice and action to sentiments previously hidden.
Locally, we have the emergence of White Rochester, a group promoting white supremacy without actually using the term.
Some Pittsford and Brighton residents have had leaflets left on their property, directing them to White Rochester’s website, whiterochester.org. Nobody’s taken responsibility for the website and the fliers, and there’s nothing inherently criminal about either. But Brighton police are trying to track down an SUV whose driver was caught on a surveillance camera dropping one of the leaflets on a driveway.
The website says that White Rochester is trying to “Make (Rochester) great again by making Rochester whiter.” It says it’s looking for people who have a white-European consciousness, an interest in promoting European-white races, and are preferably agnostic.
One of White Rochester’s goals, according to its website, is to challenge “attempts to turn whites into a minority,” which has long been a talking point of white nationalists. The leaflets are alarming because of their message, the fact that they’re spreading, and because the people distributing them are sneaky — dropping off their literature during the overnight hours.
Rochester-area communities have dealt with public displays of bigotry and hate before. Brighton, which has Monroe County’s largest Jewish population, had a swastika painted on one of its streets in the recent past, for example. And last year, three males were arrested and accused of burning crosses into the lawn of a Sufi mosque in Carlton, Orleans County.
But the bigots seem to be growing more confident, locally and across the country. One White Rochester supporter, going by the name “Steven,” for example, called into WXXI’s Connections last week during a part of the program dedicated to the fliers and to PittsFORWARD. The community group formed in response to White Rochester to show that Pittsford values diversity and inclusion.
Connections screens its callers, but “Steven” pulled a bait and switch, Connections producer Megan Mack tweeted after the program. He told the screener he wanted to talk about one thing, but when he got on the air, he asked host Evan Dawson why White Rochester wasn’t on the show, too. Dawson said the group isn’t invited.
“Steven” also suggested that Dawson go to Avenue D in Rochester and “ask who’s causing the crime.”
Mack and Dawson were also flooded with tweets from White Rochester supporters, though the accounts didn’t appear to be local.
This article appears in Oct 12-18, 2016.
Trump has mentioned many times that he has respect for both the Hispanic and Muslim communities. To state that illegal immigration has resulted in many violent crimes and acts of terrorism , both here and around the world ,is not being racist, only factual. In my opinion he could do a better job at reminding people that the overwhelming number of Muslims and Hispanics are not involved in terrorism or violent criminal acts.
Open borders serve the Economic interests of both the Republican and Democratic Party Donors by bringing labor costs down and providing population growth that creates demand for more production.
It does this at a significant cost to the American working class through lower wages , crime and terrorism. (Germany, France, Belgium show that)
I’m not ready to draw any conclusions about who is behind the pamphlets in Pittsford and Brighton. It could be a racist but it could also be someone with a political agenda.
“Nobody’s taken responsibility for the website and the fliers,”
Let us know when an actual white person has been proven to be behind it. With all the faked racism happening in the last year, wouldn’t shock me if this is just another example.
We can be sure America’s Muslim’s felt Trump’s love when he called for a ban on all entering Muslims; when he called for the registration; their surveillance (to name but a few). We can be sure Americans from Mexico felt Trump’s love when he called for building that wonderful wall (“It will be a great wall!”); deemed Mexican’s coming to America as murderers and rapists; when he vilified an American-born federal judge but whose ancestry is Mexican (to name but a few). We know American women felt Trump’s love (and his tiny fingers) when . . . where to begin? Well tonight Trump supporters are now calling for repealing the 19th Amendment. Women know abusive men when they see one. Little wonder if only women voted Trump would yield 80 (count ’em!) Electoral Votes. (fivethirtyeight) We wonder why Trump has a 30 point gap between men and women.
I’m with Eric. Until we know for sure who distributed this white supremacist literature, I don’t think anyone can know for sure if it was truly “white supremacists”. There has indeed been fake racism in this region fairly recently. I’m not saying for sure this is “fake” but until we know who it is, nobody can be sure what the motives were.
Whoever registered the domain name for White Rochester is hiding their contact information behind http://privacyprotect.org/
Rochester Musician — Both you and Eric are making things up. Tell us more (DETAILS) about the so-called “fake racism in this region fairly recently. ” Stop it.
https://nmhempster.files.wordpress.com/201…
No problem Howard. Have you googled SUNY Albany or SUNY Buffalo lately? I’ll wait.
In the meantime, this term “white-European consciousness” sounds like something a black nationalist like you likes to use.
Howard, side note: Must’ve been pretty disappointing for you to see Rev Stewart acknowledging black on black violence being a problem after the murder of his 4th family member. I thought your circle usually denies that there’s a black on black problem?
“This plague of black on black violence should no longer be tolerated.”
“This disease, plague, pandemic of black men killing each other has got to stop. We need a serious intervention. As I stated before, between 1980-2015 over 320,000 black men have been murdered by other black men. Thats more than all the American casualties of the Viet Nam War and Desert Storm and recent wars in Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan combined. That’s horrendous; that’s evil, that’s a situation that is out of control.”
“Howard, side note: Must’ve been pretty disappointing for you to see Rev Stewart acknowledging black on black violence being a problem after the murder of his 4th family member. I thought your circle usually denies that there’s a black on black problem? “
Please cite a reference where anyone has denied black on black crime. Is this some sort of myth “your circle” uses to justify your own racist beliefs?
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