Hope on the Road Ahead

Trump’s shocking victory was difficult enough to absorb. But the shock was exacerbated by a surge in hate crimes and other incidents that confirmed the worst fears raised by the vicious campaign.

In the first 60 hours after Donald Trump’s victory speech, the Southern Poverty Law Center counted more than 200 episodes of “election-related harassment and intimidation,” including ugly threats and violent assaults, ranging from “anti-black to anti-woman to anti-LGBT incidents.” Other groups have been under attack, too. On top of the hate crimes, on top of the swastikas appearing on campus walls and city streets, on top of the frightening names proposed for senior government positions, there is the continuing talk of mass deportations, spreading fear through millions of American households.

Trump’s election calls for both a short-term and a longer-term response.

In the days and weeks ahead, we need to attend to the victims of these hate incidents, prevent further attacks and intimidation, and join in solidarity with the communities now living in fear. Many of these groups have suffered attacks like these for centuries—hatred, racist bigotry, and sexist violence are not new—but the frequency and scale of the attacks since November 8 are alarming.

We need to act now. At the Open Society Foundations, we will be supporting community organizations across the United States ready to aid the victims of hate and prevent these incidents from happening in the first place.

Full article available at
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/hope-road-ahead