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Published Wednesday, September 16, 2009 in Local

Levinson says hate speech on rise with Obama's election

By Winston Skinner

The Times-Herald

Some of those attending the monthly Come To The Table meeting on Monday say they feel speech and written messages conveying racial hatred have increased since Barack Obama became the nation's first African-American president.

Hollande Levinson, the speaker for CTTT's meeting at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, confirmed their feelings. She said there has been a marked increase in hateful, race-oriented speech and writing that started during the latter months of the presidential election process.

Come To The Table seeks to bring together Cowetans of differing racial and ethnic backgrounds. The meetings always begin with a covered dish meal to encourage discussion that leads to friendship among the members.

"It's been a substantial increase," said Hollande "Holly" Levinson, director of the Anti-Defamation League -- Southeast Region, in response to a question. She talked about swastikas being painted on houses in the Atlanta area and on the office of U. S. Rep. David Scott.

Levinson said Scott also has shared messages he had received with ADL officials. "It was the most vile kind of racist stuff you can ever imagine," she said.

"There's been a noticeable increase in the activities of those extremist groups -- particularly on the far right -- since the election of Pres. Obama," Levinson said.

Levinson said the ADL was able to help the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms track down and prosecute Tennessee extremists who planned to assassinate Obama and shoot 88 black high school students. "Likely they would not have been able to reach Pres. Obama, but they probably would have been able to shoot up a high school," Levinson said.

Reggie Harris was particularly troubled at the reaction to Obama's talk to the nation's students on Sept. 8. Many parents in Coweta County and across the country had their children pulled from classrooms where the speech was transmitted via the Internet, and schools in some other areas did not show the speech at all -- even though they had been requested to do so by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

In the speech, Obama encouraged students to study and to take responsibility for their own learning.

Harris noted Obama has a juris doctor degree from Harvard. "The state of Georgia could use -- statistically -- what the president had to say," he said.

Jan Taylor said she felt the president was deserving of at least as much respect as a school principal or the school superintendent who could call a mandatory assembly to speak to students at any time. Regardless of how anyone voted, "he is our president, and we owe him respect because he is our president," she said.

Josephine Rush, who was involved in early Civil Rights activity in Coweta County, said Obama was elected president by the normal process. All Americans "might as well face the fact that Barack Obama is president," she said.

The Anti-Defamation League seeks fair treatment for all people. Levinson said the group's work has three prongs -- protect, investigate and educate. While the main focus of Levinson's talk at Come To The Table was one education, she also touched on the other two facets.

The ADL hears daily from people who need protection from discrimination. The calls may come from Jewish families whose children are being penalized at school for observing religious holidays. A recent call was from a Muslim woman who was told to remove her hijab, a head covering that is part of her religious practice, in order to enter a courthouse.

The investigation wing of the ADL looks at incidents like those at Scott's office. The ADL monitors extremist groups -- "far left, far right, domestic, international," Levinson said.

The education portion of the work is aimed at schoolchildren and at adults. There is a program for law enforcement officers that includes a trip to the U. S. Holocaust Museum and training about hate groups. The training teaches officers to "respect the communities you live and work in," Levinson said.

The main focus of Levinson's talk locally was No Place for Hate, an educational program developed by the ADL that is offered free to schools. "My job is to make sure we have less people to investigation and protect against," she said.

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9/20/2009