In the 19th and 20th century when members of white racist organizations like the KKK wanted to intimidate African American civil rights leaders, they burned a cross on the civil rights leader’s property.
Tragically, a 21st century version of that same depraved act emerged in Southern Delaware. Under the cover of night, cowardly racists took weed killer and used it to spell “Trump” in the front yard of 83-year-old Charlotte King and her spouse. Charlotte is chair of the Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice, one of the most active and well-respected civil rights organizations in Southern Delaware.
The state police declined to classify this cowardly act as a hate crime. Instead they opted to call it a political crime. Recent history and the facts surrounding this case say they are likely wrong.
Charlotte King had a Biden sign and a Black Lives Matter sign in her yard. Hundreds of homes in our community had Biden signs. None of them had Trump burned into their front yards.
Tragically, the name Trump communicates the same level of racial animus as a burning cross to some of Trump’s most extreme supporters. Trump’s well-publicized courting of racist groups like Q’Anon, The Proud Boys, and his statement that there were “fine people on both sides” of the Charlottesville KKK-Neo Nazi rally have made him a folk hero to hate groups around the world.
While well-known racist organizations see Trump as their hero, African Americans do not. Eighty-three percent of African Americans see Trump as a racist, according to Axios. Ninety percent of African Americans voted against him in the November election. African American voters provided decisive margins of victory for Biden in the critical states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and Michigan. So, given what the name “Trump” means to both the white nationalist community and the African American community, it is fair to assume this act was meant to intimidate and create fear.
We cannot let this act be swept under the rug by pretending it did not have racial overtones. Sweeping actions like this under the rug does not stop them; it normalizes them. To fight hate you must have the courage to identify it and call it what it is. Denial has never been effective in fighting racism.
With Joe Biden likely to regularly visit our community during his presidency, the Southern Delaware beaches are likely to get more scrutiny than ever before in the next few years. It is our turn to shine, and shine we should.
We want our community to be known not just as a place of great physical beauty, but as a place where Americans are doing the courageous and hard work of reconciliation after a long period of division and polarization. Here is what we can do to make that happen.
We must let it be known that there is zero tolerance for any acts of racial terror. We call on all people of goodwill to publicly repudiate any acts of hate. This effort must include business leaders, civic leaders, clergy, Republicans and Democrats.
We must normalize love. We must normalize healing. We must normalize civil and respectful dialogue. In a democracy, people are going to disagree. Disagreements can be the basis of creative solutions. But those solutions only emerge if we listen to each other instead of demonizing each other.
SDARJ and the YWCA have a powerful program for racial reconciliation called Dialogue to Action. Over 100 people from the area have taken this program in the past year. Take this program when it is offered again next year or seek out similar programs that promote racial understanding.
Make it your business to find or create opportunities to talk with people who do not look like you or think like you. Learn about the things we have in common. Discovering and treasuring what we have in common will form the foundation that we need to build a stronger, more prosperous and harmonious future together.
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