Unfortunately, the last few weeks have seen a series of articles reporting on hate and/or intolerance related activities within the United Stares, California and Orange County. Click on the orange headlines for more details.
The Orange County Register, March 5
Officials at Golden West College said Monday, March 5, that they are looking into whether comments a professor made on a video posted online, in which she appeared to tell a Long Beach couple to “go back to your home country,” violated the school’s policies.
The gentleman who posted the video, Tony Kao, said, “We have NO intention of seeking out or besmirching the offender’s personal life or career,” Kao said. “It is our hope the offender is aware and apologetic for what she has said to us, but all we can do is hope. Although my post was about something negative, the message we want to convey is POSITIVE and that is to be respectful to one another no matter of what race, creed, or color.”
The Orange County Register, February 28
Man charged with hate crime after attack on Anaheim flower seller
A transient was charged with a hate crime for allegedly attacking a man selling flowers on an Anaheim street while calling the victim a “wetback.”
The Orange County Register, February 28
For the past six months, a group of parents has been petitioning the Brea Olinda school board to change a school name they say represents a racist past. At a school board meeting Monday, more than a dozen residents urged the board to rename William E. Fanning Elementary School as a rejection of what resident Jeff LeTourneau called the city’s “checkered past” of intolerance, racial discrimination and de facto segregation.
ProPublica, February 23
Inside Atomwaffen As It Celebrates a Member for Allegedly Killing a Gay Jewish College Student
ProPublica obtained the chat logs of Atomwaffen, a notorious white supremacist group. When Samuel Woodward was charged with killing 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein last month in Orange County, California, other Atomwaffen members cheered the death, concerned only that the group’s cover might have been blown.
MSN News, March 1
States With the Most Hate Groups
The number of active hate groups in the United States has steadily risen over the past several years, from 784 in 2014 to 954 as of 2017, according to the civil rights advocacy group Southern Poverty Law Center. There are 10 states with more than 10 hate groups and at least 3.8 hate groups per 1 million residents.
LA Times, February 26
Anti-Semitism in U.S. surged in 2017, a new report finds
Harassment, threats and vandalism cases targeting Jews in the United States surged to near-record levels in 2017, jumping 57% over the previous year, according to a new report by a prominent civil rights organization. The Anti-Defamation League counted 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents — the second-highest number since the group began tracking them nearly four decades ago.
To counter some of the activities described above, OC Human Relations has started a #HateFreeOC public education and awareness campaign designed to cultivate a hate-free environment in Orange County, bring diverse communities together, and promote a safe, peaceful, respectful, and inclusive community for ALL of us to live, work, go to school and do business. Learn more about #HateFreeOC
