[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14477-14479]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  TAKING RESPONSIBILITY TO HEAL WOUNDS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, two days ago I came to the Senate floor and 
called upon the President-elect to rise to the dignity of his office. I 
called upon Mr. Trump to take responsibility for his rhetoric and his 
actions and to work to heal the wounds that he created.
  I am disappointed to say that our President-elect has chosen to do 
none of those things to this point. Meanwhile, vile acts of hate and 
intimidation continue to occur all across America.
  On Tuesday, I said that the Southern Poverty Law Center had reported 
315 hate crimes since the election. As of Wednesday, that number jumped 
to 437. That is a 40-percent increase in 2 days. That is startling.
  Here are just a few examples of the instances that have been 
reported. In Michigan, a Latino family awoke to find that someone had 
used boxes to form a wall blocking their driveway. The perpetrators 
left behind vulgar graffiti that denigrated Mexican Americans and 
praised Donald Trump for ``taking back America.''
  In Tennessee, two men returned home to find a threatening homophobic 
note. Using gay slurs, the message told the men to go back where they 
came from. A folding knife with a picture of Donald Trump on the handle 
was stabbed through the paper.
  At a high school in Missouri, a 15-year-old African-American student 
was burned with a hot glue gun and told he didn't belong in America. 
Another African-American student at the same school was told by a White 
student: ``Are you ready to get back on the boat now that Trump is 
President?''
  This morning the Washington Post editorial board related this story 
of a student at Baylor:

       The morning after Donald Trump's election as president, a 
     student at Baylor University had a nasty, hate-filled 
     encounter on her way to class. A native of Zambia, she was 
     called the n-word by another student, who shoved her off the 
     sidewalk and said he was ``just trying to make America great 
     again,'' the signature slogan of Mr. Trump's campaign. What 
     is perhaps most appalling about the incident is that it was 
     not isolated.

  As I said, I picked just a few examples. There are hundreds of these 
same kinds of things happening, as we speak, across the country. These 
are sickening acts of hate, prejudice, and just simple meanness, and 
they need to be stopped.
  The Washington Post editorial board called on Donald Trump to do 
everything he can to bring these acts to an end. They said:

       Mr. Trump should pay heed. These hateful acts are the work 
     of . . . his supporters, but they have been emboldened by the 
     ugly rhetoric of his presidential campaign. It is his 
     responsibility--not, as his campaign manager has foolishly 
     suggested, President Obama's or Hillary Clinton's--to do as 
     much as he can to discourage such actions. Granted, his 
     appointment of media mogul Stephen K. Bannon to a top White 
     House job makes that all the more difficult. So does his mild 
     response when asked about the threats and slurs on Sunday's 
     ``60 Minutes'' interview.

  He didn't say much when he was pressed to do so.

       Mr. Trump promised in his victory speech to be a president 
     for all Americans. His wife has said she wants to make 
     fighting hate and bullying her main priority as first lady. 
     They need not wait until Inauguration Day to start living up 
     to those promises.

  I have several pages of hate-filled, awful incidents that have been 
reported. There is only one person that can bring a stop to this 
quickly, and that is the President-elect. Our Nation is looking at 
Donald Trump. For the sake of the American people, I hope he will.
  I ask unanimous consent that these pages be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

Southern Poverty Law Center Hate Watch--Update: More Than 400 Incidents 
       of Hateful Harassment and Intimidation Since the Election

                           November 15, 2016

       Between Wednesday, November 9, the day after the 
     presidential election, and the morning of Monday, November 
     14, the Southern Poverty Law Center collected 437 reports of 
     hateful intimidation and harassment.
       The following reports were collected through news reports, 
     social media, and direct submissions via SPLC's #ReportHate

[[Page 14478]]

     page. These incidents, aside from news reports, are largely 
     anecdotal. The SPLC did follow up with a majority of user 
     submissions in an effort to confirm reports. As we reported 
     earlier, many incidents involved direct references to the 
     Trump campaign and its slogans.
       Here's the overview: 
       
       
       Most of the reports involved anti-immigrant incidents 
     (136), followed by anti-black (89) and anti-LGBT (43). Some 
     reports (8) included multiple categories like anti-Muslim and 
     anti-immigrant. The ``Trump'' category (41) refers to 
     incidents where there was no clear defined target, like the 
     pro-Trump vandalism of a ``unity'' sign in Connecticut. We 
     also collected 20 reports of anti-Trump intimidation and 
     harassment.
       Here are some examples from around the country:
       In Oregon:
       A Muslim woman was riding the Max to Beaverton in the early 
     afternoon and a group of teenagers went to the corner of the 
     car where she was sitting and got up in her face yelling at 
     her that she was a terrorist, that our new president was 
     going to deport her, that she can't wear her hijab anymore. 
     They got increasingly menacing, and my friend went over and 
     made them get off the train. When they were leaving through 
     the door they tried to spit on her.
       A gay man in North Carolina:
       My boyfriend and I were walking down the sidewalk in 
     Raleigh, North Carolina. It was 9:30 PM, and we were holding 
     hands and walking to a restaurant for dinner. A white car 
     passed us and a white male in the back passenger-side seat 
     leaned out the window and yelled, ``F* * * f* * *!'' at us.
       A Latina woman in Texas reported:
       I was walking my baby at my neighborhood park and a truck 
     drove by with a male driving and a female passenger. The 
     female yelled ``white power'' at us as they drove by and then 
     sped away. 
     
     
       Venues of harassment included K-12 schools (99), businesses 
     (76), and universities (67). Common also was vandalism and 
     leafleting on private property (40) and epithets and slurs 
     hurled from moving vehicles (38).
       At an elementary school in Texas:
       My 13 yo half Filipino daughter was approached by a child 
     she didn't know as she waited to board her bus after school. 
     The young man stated ``You're Asian, right? When they see 
     your eyes you are going to be deported'' and he walked away. 
     I reported this to my district Superintendent.
       From a news report in Georgia:
       A Gwinnett County high school teacher said she was left a 
     note in class Friday telling her that her Muslim headscarf 
     ``isn't allowed anymore.'' ``Why don't you tie it around your 
     neck & hang yourself with it . . .,'' the note said, signed 
     ``America!''
       Vandalism involving swastikas (35) was also frequently 
     reported. In California:

[[Page 14479]]

       A swastika was spray painted on a billboard for the movie 
     ``Almost Christmas,'' which shows an African American cast.
       It appears that incidents are subsiding, although earlier 
     incidents are still being reported:
     
     
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I see no one on the floor. So I ask the 
Chair to tell us the business of the day.

                          ____________________