David Knowles wrote:  It should come as absolutely no surprise that, despite the historic election of the first African American president of the United States, the scourge of racism has not been magically wiped away from every nook and cranny of the country. Just dip your toes into the comment section of this, or any other blog that deals with politics and you’ll encounter plenty of it. Despite that regrettable fact, for those who lived through or have studied the milestones marking the advancement of blacks throughout our nation’s history, the seeming lack of racially-motivated clashes has been a noteworthy marker of how far we have come.

That said, just as many of us can feel proud of a country so enlightened that its majority can elect a minority to the highest office of the land, we must not shy away from the uncomfortable fact that a significant number of Americans dislike Obama based, first and foremost, on the color of his skin. By the way, that’s not the same as claiming that if you criticize Obama you are, by definition, a racist. I’m talking about that proud band of citizenry who’ll tell you openly of their disdain and fear of darker skin tones.<

Now that the rush of excitement is starting to wane, a spate of media stories is shedding light on those people who wish history had not been made, would never be made, when it comes to black equality. So then, via Editor & Publisher, here’s a rogues round-up. An up-to-the-minute cataloging of that which we all know is out there, alive and well.

1. Yesterday, Tommy Christopher detailed the story of a bus load of Idaho elementary school tots chanting “Assassinate Obama! Assassinate Obama!”

2. In a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a high school teacher’s aide berated a bi-racial 16-year-old Obama supporter, with the following predictions:
“…[the aide] said that Obama was going to be shot and killed,” Mara Gilligan told KDKA News. ” And that our flag is going to be the KFC [Kentucky Fried Chicken] flag and that the new national anthem will be ‘Moving On Up’–and that all my daughter’s beliefs were wrong and her children’s lives were going to be ruined because Obama was elected.”
3. The Associated Press reports several cars in Long Island, New York, vandalized with anti-Obama messages, including promises to kill the president-elect.

4. At North Carolina State University, four students face expulsion for spay painting the phrases, “Let’s shoot that (N-word) in the head” and “Hang Obama by a noose.”

5. In Texas, Baylor University students awoke the morning after Obama’s victory to find a noose hanging from a tree in front of Morrison Hall.

6. In Maine, several black figures were found hanging from nooses on Mount Desert Island the day after Obama won.

7. California vandals went on a spray painting binge in Torrance, targeting cars with Obama bumper stickers. On one house the words “Go Back to Africa” were inscribed.

8. Of course, we all know of the Tennessee skinhead plot to kill random African Americans, and, with a wing and a prayer, Obama himself.

9. In Pennsylvania’s Apolacon Township, situated in an area known for KKK activity, an interracial couple looked out their front window to find the remnants of a burned cross.

10. Two men in the ironically named Friendsville, Pennsylvania were arrested for “racial intimidation and trespassing.”

These are but ten incidents. Thankfully, none resulted in physical violence.

Source: a href=”http://news.aol.com/political-machine/bloggers/david-knowles/

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Joe wrote:

David, Thank you for that sobering reminder.

Personally I could not be more excited by Obama’s victory. As he said, this wasn’t only his victory, this was our victory, MANY citizens of the United States, who share Martin, Stevie and Paul’s dream of “ebony and ivory living in perfect harmony”

As for the stories in your article, those of us in this extremely resilient country who have been blessed to receive even a microscopic grain of enlightenment read these gut-wrenching anecdotal exhibits of racism not with anger, not with disgust, not with indifference, not with fear, and most certainly not with hate. We read them with sadness.

Truly, I am deeply saddened for those whose depraved conditioning, wanton ignorance and worthless pride prevent them from experiencing this amazing life as I believe the Creator intended it to be experienced. And while I am personally stunned by the callousness of these alleged acts, I also observe that most of them tend to occur where loving humanity is absent: in the shadows of darkness…. which for me signals there is at least some hope these wanderers will somehow find their way to the light—as many before them have.

In closing, while many of our brothers continue to drift aimlessly without the beacon of enlightenment to guide them, even as the foghorn of unbridled human advancement blasts in their ears, those of us who don’t live in such darkness can exercise great gratitude for our blessings, and rejoice as we continue to  unravel the great mysteries of mankind and science, all the while celebrating God’s brilliant artistry on display in the diverse and extraordinary creatures he designed to inhabit his earth.