[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 163 (Tuesday, November 15, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6318-S6322]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have been in politics for five decades. I
have not seen anything like what we are seeing today in America. The
man who lost the popular vote by 2 million votes is now the President-
elect. I will repeat that. A man who lost the election by 2 million
votes or more is now the President-elect.
His election has sparked a wave of hate crimes across America. This
is a simple statement of fact, but it raises critical questions for us
as a country and as a nation. How do we respond to the election of
Donald Trump?
The Democrats want to work with Mr. Trump when we can. I understand
and respect the impulse because Democrats like to get things done. That
is why most of us are in government in the first place.
For example, Democrats have been trying for multiple decades to get
Republicans to invest in our deteriorating infrastructure. What kind of
makeup do we have in the infrastructure? Some say $1 trillion; some say
$3 trillion. It is really badly in need of help and repair. It is an
automatic job creator. Over these decades, each time we tried to do
something on infrastructure, Republicans obstructed. So if we can
finally get Republicans to make the job-creating infrastructure
investments we have been seeking for years, that would be a welcome
development for the Senate and the country.
If Trump wants to pursue policies that will help working people,
Democrats will take a pragmatic approach. Democrats have a
responsibility to improve the lives of Americans, but we also have
other responsibilities. We have a responsibility to be the voice of
millions of Americans sitting at home, afraid that they are not welcome
anymore in Donald Trump's America. We have a responsibility to prevent
Trump's bullying, aggressive behavior from becoming normalized in the
eyes of Americans, especially to the many young people who are watching
and wondering, for example, if sexual assault is now a laughing matter.
We have a responsibility to say that it is not normal for the KKK and
groups like the Klan to celebrate the election of a President they view
as their champion with a victory parade. They have one scheduled. In
other words, we have a responsibility to lead.
Outside this Senate Chamber, workers can be heard hammering away on
the platform for the inauguration ceremony. It will take months to do
it, but it will be done right. In 65 days Donald Trump will step onto
that platform. For 4 years he will wield the loudest and most powerful
microphone in the world. But even as those workers hammer away on
Trump's platform, and even as we as leaders accept the results of this
election, we must also give voice to those who are afraid because there
are many who are afraid.
Indeed, a majority of Americans opposed Donald Trump. Many of my
Republican colleagues in this Chamber opposed Trump. They were not
alone. Trump will be the first President to take office having lost the
popular vote by 2 million.
Every day for the past week, the majority of American voters have
awakened to a difficult reality: Not only did the man who lost the
popular vote win the election, but his election sparked a rise in hate
crimes and threats of violence. Since Election Day, the Southern
Poverty Law Center has reported hundreds of incidents of harassment and
intimidation. The last count reported is 315 from their calculations.
Overwhelmingly, the hateful acts are anti-Muslim, anti-Hispanic,
anti-African American, anti-woman, anti-LGBT, anti-Semitic, and anti-
Asian.
I have heard these stories from friends and family. My and my wife's
Nevada physician is a Pakistani-American of Muslim faith. We think so
much of him. We have known each other for 35 years. The day after the
election my friend was in a restaurant in Las Vegas having dinner. A
man approached him in a threatening manner and said: Where are you
from? He said: Where are you from? The man said: I'm local. The doctor
said: So am I.
That same night, in another restaurant in Las Vegas, another friend
of mine who is also a Pakistani-American physician was having dinner. A
man walked up to him in the same manner and said: Where are you from?
He said he was from Pakistan. The other man said: Why don't you go
back?
One of my staffers has a daughter in middle school. I have known that
little girl since she was a little baby. The day after the election,
the principal addressed the entire student body on the school's PA
system because of two incidents that had occurred that he wanted to
talk about. In one instance, a boy yelled at a Latina student, saying
he was glad she was being deported now that Trump was President.
Another boy was sent home for yelling a derogatory, hateful term to
an African-American student. The boy justified himself by saying he
could use that language now that Trump was President.
In Spokane, WA, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center was defaced with
the same hateful word.
Those are only a few examples that people close to me have related.
But these disturbing accounts have been heard across America.
I have a compilation of many of these incidents. One is from NBC
news. Another is from another publication. There is a headline:
``Hundreds of Hate Crimes Reported Since the Election.''
[[Page S6319]]
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that they be printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[Nov. 14, 2016]
NBC--Hundreds of Hate Crimes Reported Since Election: SPLC CHELSEA
BAILEY
More than 300 incidents of harassment or intimidation have
been reported following Donald Trump's election Tuesday
night, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) told NBC News
Monday.
The SPLC first published its report on post-election
incidents on Friday but said reports have continued to stream
in. They found that harassment most commonly occurred in K-12
schools and on university campuses. Many, though not all
incidents, involved direct references to the Trump campaign,
according to the group's report.
The anti-intolerance watchdog said it will continue to
tally incidents of hate and harassment reported through
social media, news reports and direct submissions to its
website.
The Law Center said they were unable to independently
verify each incident reported, but NBC News has separately
confirmed dozens.
Some incidents of hate crimes that NBC News has confirmed
independently:
On Sunday, a rector found the words ``Trump Nation, Whites
Only'' scrawled on the walls of the Episcopal Church of Our
Saviour in Silver Spring, Maryland. The church offers weekly
Spanish-language services.
The University of Michigan issued a campus safety alert
Sunday after a Muslim student told police a white male
demanded she remove her hijab or he would ``set her on fire
with a lighter.'' Police are investigating.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered state police to open
a multi-agency hate crimes investigation into reports that a
swastika and the word ``Trump'' was spray painted on the
walls of a residence hall at SUNY Geneseo.
In Philadelphia, police are searching for the man who
grafittied ``Trump Rules'' and ``Black B* * *'' onto the hood
of a woman's van.
Parishioners found graffiti on the walls of St. David's
Episcopal Church in Indiana. A swastika, ``Heil Trump'' and
``F* * * Church'' were spray painted on the walls of the
church, which performs same-sex weddings, WTHR reports.
``Colored'' and ``Whites Only'' signs were placed above
drinking fountains at First Coast High School in
Jacksonville, Florida, a district spokeswoman confirmed with
NBC News.
Mere hours after Trump won the election, ``Make America
White Again'' was scrawled across the wall of a softball
field in Wellsville, New York. Police are investigating.
Also on Monday, the FBI'S Uniform Crime Reporting division
also released its annual ``Hate Crimes Statistics'' report,
tracking the number of bias-motivated incidents reported to
law enforcement officials in 2015. The number of hate crimes
rose 6 percent in 2015, according to the report, and the vast
majority (59 percent) of victims were targeted because of
their race or ethnicity.
Attacks motivated by religious bias and sexual orientation
were also among the most frequently reported types of hate
crimes. The number of reported anti-Muslim hate crimes spiked
in 2015, growing by an astonishing 66 percent, according to
the FBI report.
In all, more than 5,800 incidents of hate crimes were
reported to authorities, involving 7,121 victims. Of the
known offenders, ``48.4 percent were white, 24.3 percent were
African American, and race was unknown for 16.2 percent of
offenders,'' according to the report.
Related: How the 2016 Election Exposed America's Racial and
Cultural Divides.
In addition to monitoring anti-Arab bias, the report also
tracked incidents of anti-religious bias for seven additional
religions for the first time. The expanded report now tracks
anti-religious bias against Buddhist, Eastern Orthodox,
Hindu, Jehovah's Witness, Mormon, Sikh and other Christian
victims.
Monday's report marks the 25th anniversary of the FBI's
efforts to compile data around hate crimes. The report
contains data from nearly 15,000 law enforcement agencies.
____
[Updated: Nov. 14, 2016]
BuzzFeed--Here Are 26 Reported Racist Incidents After Donald Trump's
Victory Tasneem Nashrulla
``This is the normal.''
1. Threatening ``vigilante'' fliers calling for torture of
``university leaders spouting off all this diversity
garbage'' were posted in bathrooms across Texas State
University after Donald Trump's win in the elections.
``Now that our man TRUMP is elected and republicans own
both the senate and the house--time to organize tar and
feather VIGILANTE SQUADS and go arrest and torture those
deviant university leaders spouting off all this Diversity
Garbage,'' the fliers, which were glued to bathrooms and
minors in buildings across the campus, said.
Other fliers criticized the the concept of diversity and
its proponents.
One flier said, ``NO OTHER RACE (BUT WHITES) HAS BENT OVER
BACKWARDS to assure that all non-whites receive a `fair
shake' in being part of American life, even to the detriment
and social well-being of `our own kinds' (whites).'' The
flier said ``multiculturalism'' and ``diversity'' and ``code-
words for white genocide.''
The Texas State University Police was investigating the
incident, President Denise M. Trauth said in a statement.
Trauth said she was aware of reports of ``action and
expression that have occurred on campus following the recent
elections in our country.''
``Actions such as pasting flyers to bathroom mirrors
amounts to criminal activity, and our university police are
investigating these incidents,'' Trauth said. ``Texas State
strives to maintain an atmosphere that protects free speech,
but one that is respectful to other members of the Bobcat
community.''
The university police did not return BuzzFeed News' request
for comment.
2. Racial slurs and threats, including the n-word, ``Go
back to Africa,'' and ``Whites only,'' along with pro-Trump
slogans were found scrawled in a high school bathroom in
Minnesota on Nov. 9.
Police said they were investigating the graffiti found in
the boys bathroom at Maple Grove Senior High School. The
graffiti included F* * *allPorchmonkeys, #Whitesonly, Trump
Train, #Gobacktoafrica and ``Make America Great Again.''
According to police, the ``racist'' messages were written
during the school day on Nov. 9.
``This type of behavior is highly offensive, will not be
tolerated and does not reflect the views of the Maple Grove
community,'' police said in a statement.
In a letter to students' families, the school's principal,
Bart Becker, said he was ``horrified'' by the ``serious and
disturbing racial incident.''
``We immediately launched an investigation into this
incident and we will take swift and appropriate action based
on the investigation findings,'' Becker said. ``We will work
very hard to identify who did this horrible act and determine
how we can support the students and the staff who have been
affected by it.''
3. Mehreen Kasana, an editor in New York City who was
wearing a scarf around her head the day after the election,
said that a man told her, ``Your time's up, girlie.''
Mehreen Kasana @mehreenkasana
I have a scarf on. Passed by someone on the platform today
and he says, ``Your time's up, girlie.'' 8:50 AM--9 Nov 2016
Kasana, a Muslim woman, told BuzzFeed News that she didn't
usually cover her head but her younger sister observes the
hijab. She said she wore a scarf on Nov. 9 because of the
cold.
Kasana said that while she was passing by people at the
subway station, a ``white man who had to be in his mid-30s,
holding a briefcase and a newspaper first looked at me and
grunted. Then he said, `Your time's up, girlie.' ''
According to Kasana no one at the station did anything. ``I
almost always fight back but I think that moment was so
replete with defeat and misery that, out of the sheer need to
protect myself, I remained silent,'' she said. ``The last
thing I needed was to get pushed on the tracks.''
4. Middle schoolers in Michigan chanted ``Build the wall''
in their lunchroom on Nov. 9.
Philip Lewis @Phil_Lewis
Middle school students in Royal Oak, Michigan chanting
``Build The Wall!''
9:55 AM--10 Nov 2016
A group of middle schoolers in Royal Oak, Michigan, broke
out in a ``build the wall'' chant inside their cafeteria on
Wednesday, echoing one of Trump's rallying cries during his
campaign.
``Because of the strong emotions and intensity of rhetoric
that the posting of this incident to social media has
elicited, we have had parents express concern regarding
student safety,'' Superintendent of schools Shawn Lewis-Lakin
said in a statement Thursday.
5. A ``Make America White Again'' sign with a swastika was
graffitied on a softball dugout wall in a park in Wellsville,
New York.
Brian Quinn @brianqwdr
Trump has spoken about ``Making America great again,'' but
someone else had a different message recently in Wellsville.
1:38 PM--9 Nov 2016
Wellsville Village Police Chief Tim O'Grady told the
Wellsville Daily that no one had filed a complaint about the
graffiti, which was spotted on Nov. 9. He said the wall was
on a privately owned field. ``Unless somebody makes a
complaint, we don't have any cause for action,'' O'Grady
said. ``It's vandalism, we'll look into it.''
On Saturday, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced a
joint investigation involving New York State Police and the
State Division of Human Rights looking into the graffiti,
calling it a hate crime.
``New York has zero tolerance for bigotry, fear and hatred,
and those who seek to undermine the core values this state
and nation were founded upon,'' Cuomo said in the statement.
``I have ordered a full investigation into this deplorable
act.''
Sixty-seven percent of votes in Allegany County, where
Wellsville is located, went to Trump-Pence.
6. Photos of a black baby doll which appeared to be hung in
an elevator in Canisius College in New York on the night of
Nov. 8, surfaced on social media.
Jordan Roth @Baby_Jay1221
This baby doll was found in a freshman elevator last night
at Canisius. I don't care who
[[Page S6320]]
you are or what your beliefs are this is awful 3:51 PM--9 Nov
2016
The Tuesday-night incident prompted Canisius President John
Hurley to send a campuswide letter strongly condemning the
act, which he called ``extremely troubling on several
levels,'' the Buffalo News reported.
He later issued a detailed message describing two separate
incidents--placing the doll in the elevator and the use of
the doll in a residence hall room--which involved two
unrelated sets of students.
According to the public safety report, the doll was first
placed in an elevator as a prank to startle people and the
two strings at the doll's neck were part of its construction.
Hurley said there was no evidence that the doll was hung in
the elevator as several social media posts appeared to
suggest.
The elevator prank set off a chain of events ``on a night
when the results of the presidential election had many
students feeling distressed and vulnerable'' Hurley said,
adding that those involved in the elevator prank would be
disciplined.
The doll was then later put in residence hall room where it
was hung from the curtain rod, according to the report.
Students took photos of it and created memes using language
about ``Trump fans'' which were then posted to social media,
according to Hurley.
``It's evident that what may have started as a thoughtless,
insensitive prank earlier in the evening in the elevator
degraded into a very offensive, inappropriate act later that
night,'' he said.
The students involved in the residence hall incident have
been involuntarily suspended from the college pending the
outcome of disciplinary cases against them, the consequences
of which could include dismissal from the college, Hurley
said.
7. A ``fair skinned male'' allegedly pulled at a woman's
hijab on Nov. 8, choking her and causing her to fall, San
Jose State University police said in an alert to students.
Pam Howell @BookaliciousPam
San Jose State University sent an email that a woman had
her hijab ripped off by a white male with such force it
choked her as she fell.
9:08 PM--9 Nov 2016
It wasn't clear whether the woman was attacked because of
her hijab, and the university said the case was under
investigation.
``We are of course very concerned that this has occurred on
our campus,'' a spokeswoman told the Mercury News. ``No one
should experience this kind of behavior at San Jose State.''
Doaa Abdelrahman, the president of the Muslim Student
Association at San Jose State, told the Mercury News that she
knew the victim and believed the attack was related to
Trump's campaign on election night.
``I've experienced racism for my religion since age 9,''
Abdelrahman said. ``I think Trump is the cause of a lot of
segregation and division between people.''
8. ``Trump'' was scrawled on the door of a Muslim prayer
room at New York University on Nov. 9.
The incident at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering was
reported by the NYU Muslim Students Association (MSA).
The day after Trump was elected president, a Muslim student
making his way to the prayer room found ``Trump'' scribbled
across the front of prayer space door, Afraz Khan, the
president of NYU MSA, told BuzzFeed News.
``Our campus is not immune to the bigotry that grips
America,'' the MSA said in a Facebook post.
The incident was reported to university officials, whom
Khan said were doing a ``wonderful job in supporting us.''
In the wake of the vandalism, the MSA organized a rally and
called on fellow students ``to show support that fear and
intimidation have no place on our campus.''
Within 24 hours, more than 1,000 people signed up as
supporters ``to denounce this hate,'' Khan said.
``Nothing like this has happened before at NYU and we pray
this is the first and last incident,'' he said.
9. ``F* * * your safe space,'' ``Build wall,'' and
``Trump'' were scrawled in chalk at the University of
Louisiana at Lafayette on Nov. 8.
The Vermilion @TheVermilion
PRO-Trump chalk was littered in front of the EGD library
last night.
10:32 AM--9 Nov 2016
Other graffiti scrawled on campus after Trump's win
included ``Democrats can kiss Trump's a* * *.''
Campus maintenance workers washed away some of the reported
graffiti, while campus police were investigating several more
reports of pro-Trump graffiti across the campus, the
Advertiser reported.
10. ``Black lives don't matter and neither does your
votes,'' was spray-painted across a wall in Durham, North
Carolina on Nov. 9.
Derrick Lewis @DerrickQLewis
Someone spray painted ``Black lives don't matter and
neither does your votes'' on a wall in Durham overnight.
3:27 PM--9 Nov 2016
Community members gathered Thursday and cleaned up the
message, WNCN reported.
11. After one photo went viral, Southern Illinois
University issued a statement saying they were aware of
offensive social media posts and were reviewing the
incidents.
``This week's presidential election was extremely divisive
and emotions are running high,'' the interim chancellor, Brad
Colwell, said in the statement. ``A number of people have
contacted my office regarding offensive behavior and
comments, including social media posts. While federal law
prohibits us from discussing issues related to specific
students, please know that we deeply share your concerns. We
are reviewing every incident and will take appropriate
action.''
Colwell said that while discussions about the future of the
country were important, he urged students to do so in a
``civil manner that respects everyone's right to agree or to
disagree.''
Colwell issued his statement after a viral social media
post showed two students from wearing blackface and standing
in front of a Confederate flag.
However, one of the students in the photo later wrote on
Facebook that the picture had been taken out of context. She
said she had been wearing a ``boscia face mask'' in front of
a Confederate flag she had ripped because she does not
support it.
12. A Muslim student at San Diego State University (SDSU)
was attacked and robbed by two men ``who made comments about
President-Elect Trump and the Muslim community'' on Nov. 9,
the SDSU police said in a safety alert.
A Muslim student at San Diego State University (SDSU) was
attacked and robbed by two men ``who made comments about
President-Elect Trump and the Muslim community'' on Nov. 9,
the SDSU police said in a safety alert.
The two suspects, a white male and a Hispanic male,
confronted the student in a stairwell in what police
described as a ``hate crime, robbery and vehicle theft.''
The two men ``made comments about President-Elect Trump and
the Muslim community, confronted her and grabbed her purse
and backpack,'' according to police. They also took her car
keys and stole her vehicle.
``Comments made to the student indicate she was targeted
because of her Muslim faith, including her wearing of a
traditional garment and hijab,'' SDSU police said in a
statement provided to BuzzFeed News.
13. Two men in a pickup truck with a Trump flag drove to
Wellesley College, a women's liberal arts school in
Massachusetts and Hillary Clinton's alma mater, stopped in
front of a house for students of African descent, and
``antagonized'' and screamed ``Trump'' and ``Make America
Great Again'' on Nov. 9, according to accounts from students
and college officials.
Wellesley police confirmed the incident and said the two
``disruptive individuals'' were asked to leave the property.
The two men, who were students at Babson College, were
expelled from their fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon. The
fraternity said that both men's actions were ``abhorrent'' in
a statement.
``This type of abusive, misogynistic behavior has no place
in our society, and we're proud of our chapter swiftly
removing these men from our organization,'' the fraternity
said, Babson College was investigating both men's actions,
which the president described as ``highly offensive,
incredibly insensitive, and simply not acceptable.''
14. A Facebook post on Nov. 9 appeared to show a Trump
supporter in a car that had Trump flags and anti-Muslim
stickers including ``All Muslims are terrorists, deport them
all.''
A Facebook post on Nov. 9 appeared to show a Trump
supporter in a car that had Trump flags and anti-Muslim
stickers including ``All Muslims are terrorists, deport them
all.''
The Facebook user posted a video showing the truck with a
Confederate flag on the front bumper and also stickers
saying, ``Kill all Muslims'' and ``All Muslims are child
molesters.'' The user later deleted the Facebook post.
15. Yarden Katz, a fellow at Harvard Medical School, said
that he witnessed a US postal worker telling a man who
appeared to be of Hispanic descent, ``Go back to your
country. This is Trump land'' at a gas station in
Massachusetts on Nov. 9.
Yarden Katz @yardenkatz
My letter to @USPS about what I witnessed today in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. #Trump
5:46 PM-9 Nov 2016
USPS said the issue had been ``escalated to the appropriate
members of USPS management.'' Katz told BuzzFeed News that it
was an ``appalling incident.''
``I was taken aback by how brazen it was on the part of the
USPS worker to make racist comments, in broad daylight, in a
supposedly progressive town. It clearly looks like part of a
bigger national trend,'' he said.
16. A swastika, ``Seig Heil 2016,'' and the word ``Trump''
with the T replaced with a swastika were graffitied on the
windows on an empty store in South Philly on Wednesday,
Philly.com reported.
Philly.com @phillydotcom
PhillyClout: ``Sieg Heil,'' swastikas, racist Trump
graffiti appear in South Philly.
http://bit.ly/2fSN1kN
2:10 PM--9 Nov 2016
The graffiti was spray-painted on the 78th anniversary of
Kristallnacht or ``Night of the Broken Glass''--a wave anti-
Jewish pogroms in Nazi Germany in 1938.
Police also investigated several other incidents of pro-
Trump racist graffiti, including the words ``Trump Rules''
and ``Black B * * *,'' spray-painted across a car belonging
to a 62-year-old black woman, Philly.com reported.
17. Chris Weatherd, a former University of Tennessee
linebacker, posted a video that
[[Page S6321]]
appeared to show his car vandalized with the n-word and
``Trump'' on Nov. 9 in Knoxville.
Chris Weatherd TM @Chris_Weatherd Whoever did
this I'm throwin' hands
11:08 AM--9 Nov 2016
Weatherd told BuzzFeed News that he woke up on Wednesday
morning to find that someone had used washable paint to
vandalize his car with racial slurs.
He did not file a police report, but said that a family
member of the person who did it had apologized to him.
Weatherd did not wish to disclose the identity of the alleged
suspect, but said it was a neighbor who was a Trump
supporter.
He said that while he wasn't ``entirely upset'' about it,
he posted it to Twitter to show that ``this is the normal.''
18. Rochelle Abraham posted a picture of a car with a
Confederate flag and ``Kill Kill Kill'' signs in Needham,
Massachusetts, the morning after Trump's victory.
Abraham told BuzzFeed News that she spotted the car, which
had a POW flag, an American flag, and the Confederate flag,
on the morning on Nov. 9.
``I was already feeling off center with respect to what a
Trump presidency would mean for myself and those that I
love,'' Abraham said. ``First and foremost I fear for what
this means for my 26-year-old son. The current murders of
young unarmed black men, Giuliani era stop-and-frisk and just
so much on my mind after hearing the final results. The last
thing I expected to see was this atrocious, blatant display
of hurtful disrespect, racism, and bigotry,'' she said.
While she did not see any Trump signs on the car, ``just
the fact that I saw this the day after the election kind of
speaks for itself,'' she said.
19. A student at the New School in New York City on Nov. 12
tweeted a photo of what appears to be a swastika that was
drawn on the door of her dorm where she lived with other
Jewish women.
sam @samlichtenstein
We woke up to this on our door, in a dorm at @TheNewSchool,
where 3 Jewish women live.
@ShaunKing @deray @parsonsdesign
11:06 AM--12 Nov 2016
Samantha Lichtenstein told BuzzFeed News in an email that
one of her roommates first saw the symbol when she was on her
way out of the dorm this morning. She took a photo of it and
sent it to her.
``My roommate and I walked around the rest of the floor to
see the symbol on 3 other doors,'' Lichtenstein wrote. ``We
knocked on the doors to tell them of the defamation.''
The roommates have notified and filed reports with campus
security as well as the NYPD.
``We are extremely heartbroken. This may have been someone
trying to play a joke, but this is not funny. And it was not
just one door; 4 different doors were targeted, and only on
our floor,'' Lichtenstein wrote.
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio retweeted Lichtenstein on Saturday
along with a short statement.
``Hate speech is reprehensible, and has no place in NYC,''
de Blasio said. ``To the affected, we stand with you. To the
perpetrators, we are better than this.''
David E. Van Zandt, president of the New School, also
tweeted in support of the students, calling it ``abhorrent''
and saying he was taking ``immediate and appropriate
action.''
20. A woman was forced to remove her hijab on Nov. 11 by a
man who threatened to set her on fire with a lighter. The
incident took place at the University of Michigan campus in
Ann Arbor.
``As told to the Ann Arbor Police, a student was approached
by an unknown man, who demanded she remove her hijab or he
would set her on fire with a lighter,'' according to crime
report posted on the university's website.
``She complied and left the area. The Ann Arbor Police are
actively investigating,'' the statement read.
The suspect has been described as a ``white male, 20-30
years old, average height, athletic build, bad body odor,
unkempt appearance, intoxicated with slurred speech,''
according to the school's site.
Ann Arbor Police Sgt. Patrick Maguire told BuzzFeed News
that the department is actively investigating the incident
and is soliciting more information.
21. Several black UPenn students received racist and
threatening messages Friday, including invites to a ``daily
lynching.''
Chidera @chiderasiegbu
Black students throughout @Penn's campus, like myself, have
been added to this hateful GroupMe. I am petrified and all I
want to do is cry.
2:30 PM--11 Nov 2016
Several black UPenn students reported being added to a
GroupMe chat included pictures of lynchings, derogatory terms
and threats Friday.
University officials said the FBI and university police
were contacted, and the messages were linked back to a
University of Oklahoma student more than 1,400 miles away.
The student has not been identified, but officials said he
has been suspended in connection to the incident. Read more
about it here.
22. A student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio
reported being assaulted by three white men and called a
racial slur, the university said.
A student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio
reported being assaulted by three white men and called a
racial slur, the university said.
``We immediately reached out to the student,'' Thomas J.
Gibson, the university's vice president for student affairs,
said in a statement. ``Today, she filed a report with the
Bowling Green Police Department. They are investigating.''
23. A swastika was spray-painted on a sidewalk in New
York's Brooklyn Jewish neighborhood of Crown Heights.
Mordechai Lightstone @Mottel
BREAKING: Swastika spray painted on Montgomery St in heart
of Jewish Crown Heights. Note: This is not a first here (h/t
@HirshelTzig )
11:35 AM--13 Nov 2016
The Nazi symbol was painted on the comers of Montgomery St.
and Brooklyn Ave, Crown Heights resident Mordechai Lightstone
told BuzzFeed News.
Lightstone noted this was not the first time a graffiti
swastika has appeared in the neighborhood.
24. A Spanish-language sign at an Episcopal church in
Silver Spring, Maryland--a heavily Latino neighborhood just
outside Washington D.C.--was vandalized on Saturday night
with the words ``TRUMP NATION'' and ``WHITES ONLY.''
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of
Washington wrote on Facebook she is ``heartsick'' at the
vandalism at the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour.
Bishop Budde added that she ``can only imagine how the
people of Our Saviour, one of the most culturally diverse
parishes in the diocese, feel.'' Read more about it here.
25. A Michigan police officer was suspended after flying a
confederate flag at an anti-Trump rally on Nov. 11.
Traverse City officer Michael Peters has been suspended
with pay after he drove a pickup truck with a Confederate
flag to an anti-Donald Trump protest and reportedly got into
a confrontation with a demonstrator. Peters was off duty at
the time.
Police chief Jeff O'Brien promised an internal
investigation to determine if Peters broke department rules.
Read more about the incident here.
26. A church in Indiana was discovered vandalized with
slurs on Nov. 13.
St. David's Episcopal Church in Bean Blossom, Indiana was
reportedly spray painted with a swastika, an anti-gay slur,
and ``Heil Trump.''
Rev. Kelsey Hutto, a priest at the St. David's Episcopal
Church, told BuzzFeed News that she was disappointed after
the graffiti was discovered on the walls Sunday, but that
they wouldn't ``let the actions of a few damper our love of
Christ and the world.''
``We will continue to live out our beliefs and acceptance
of all people and respecting the dignity of every human
being,'' Hutto said to BuzzFeed News. ``We pray for the
perpetrators as well as those who the derogatory marks were
directed at.''
Hutto said that they needed to respond to hateful acts with
love.
``Anyone is welcome on the sacred ground of the church,''
Hutto continued. ``This act was an act of separation.
Separation of us from each other and a separation from God
which is the definition of a sin.''
Mr. REID. Mr. President, what was just entered into the Record are
references that are being made. They are awful. They are hateful. They
are frightening. They are scary. I invite any of my colleagues to read
these horrible acts, and I invite any Senator, Democrat or Republican,
to come right down to this floor today and defend any one of them. It
is an example of hate and prejudice. I don't believe anyone wants to
defend hateful acts being committed in President-Elect Trump's name.
It leads to one unavoidable conclusion. Many of our fellow Americans
believe that Trump's election validates the kind of bullying and
aggressive behavior Trump modeled on a daily basis. How do we teach our
children that bragging about sexual assault is abhorrent if we rush
into the arms of the man who dismissed it as ``locker room talk''? If
we fail to hold Trump accountable, we all bear a measure of
responsibility for normalizing his behavior.
Here is a letter from a seventh grader from Rhode Island. She wrote
the day after the election, and I will quote from the letter:
I'm extremely scared, especially being a woman of color,
that the president of the country that I was born and live in
is making me feel unsafe when I usually don't feel unsafe. It
is even scarier because this man who is now the president of
the United States of America has said such rude, ignorant and
disrespectful things about women and all different types of
people and is now in charge of our country. I want to feel
safe in my country but I no longer can feel safe with someone
like Donald Trump leading the country.
Our President is supposed to make people feel safe, but on Wednesday,
a seventh grade girl awoke feeling frightened to be a woman of color in
America because Donald Trump was President-elect. If we ignore her
voice and other voices, this seventh grader will be left
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to conclude that we as a nation find her fear acceptable.
How do we show her that she does not have to be afraid? The first
step is facing reality. No matter how hard the rest of us work, the
main responsibility lies within the man who inspired the fear.
President-Elect Trump must act immediately to make Americans like that
seventh grade girl feel they are welcome in his America.
Healing the wounds he inflicted will take more than words. Talk is
cheap and tweets are cheaper. Healing the wounds is going to take
action, but so far, rather than healing these wounds, Trump's actions
have deepened them. In one of his very first, if not his first official
act, he appointed a man seen as a champion of White supremacy as the
No. 1 strategist in the White House--the No. 1, everybody else under
him.
According to CNN, ``White nationalist leaders are praising Donald
Trump's decision to name [Stephen Bannon] as his chief strategist.'' In
the same article, White nationalist leaders say they see Bannon ``as an
advocate for policies they favor.''
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Bannon ``was the main
driver behind Breitbart becoming a white ethno-nationalist propaganda
mill.''
When asked to comment on Bannon's hiring, KKK leader David Duke told
CNN, ``I think that's excellent.''
A court filing stated that Bannon said ``that he doesn't like Jews
and that he doesn't like the way they raise their kids to be `whiny
brats' and that he didn't want [his] girls to go to school with Jews.''
By placing a champion of White supremacists a step away from the Oval
Office, what message does Trump send to the young girl who woke up
Wednesday morning in Rhode Island afraid to be a woman of color in
America? It is certainly not a message of healing.
If Trump is serious about seeking unity, the first thing he should do
is rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon. Rescind it. Don't do it.
Think about this. Don't do it. As long as a champion of racial division
is a step away from the Oval Office, it will be impossible to take
Trump's efforts to heal the Nation seriously.
So I say to Donald Trump: Take responsibility. Rise to the dignity of
the Office of the President of the United States instead of hiding
behind your Twitter account and show America that racism, bullying, and
bigotry have no place in the White House or in America.
I yield the floor.
____________________