Barack Marley posted yesterday about a number of incidents that have occurred over the last week, following the election of Barack Obama. Consider this diary, then, a follow-up to his.
Racial tensions have spilled over in a Pittsburgh suburb, where a black high school student was beaten by a group of other students because he supported Barack Obama for President.
According to KDKA, the incident started at West Allegheny High School...
The fight started in a biology class at West Allegheny High School the day after the election...
[snip]
At issue was the election of Barack Obama.
... but soon spread to the boy's home in North Fayette:
The victim and his mother, who did not want to be identified, say a group of teens came to their house to start a fight.
(all emphasis mine)
Fortunately, the local authorities seem to be taking this seriously, looking into the possibility of charging six to seven students with ethnic intimidation (more commonly referred to as hate crime).
Frankly, I'm not really surprised that this is happening. Remember when Jack Murtha landed himself in hot water for calling his constituents racists? Well, while this isn't his Congressional district, it looks much the same demographically. And for as much trouble as it caused him, Murtha was absolutely right.
Consider this: Look at the numbers for a number of elections in Western PA, especially the change from 2004 to 2008. For geographic background on the region, here's a map of the 10 counties considered to comprise southwestern PA:
image courtesy of Southwestern PA Commission
While John Kerry was able to win four out of these 10 counties (Allegheny, Beaver, Fayette, and Washington)...
... Barack Obama won only Allegheny.
In down-ballot races, the numbers look even bleaker:
- Republican Tim Murphy won re-election to PA's 18th Congressional District by a wider margin this year than in 2004. PA-18 is now Pennsylvania's only CD along its western border that is still held by a Republican.
- Republican Tim Krieger won the race for PA House District 57, which had been held by Democrat Tom Tangretti until his retirement this year. HD 57 is based in Greensburg, the Westmoreland County seat.
- Republican Kim Ward won the race for PA Senate District 39 in 2008 by a wider margin than Republican Bob Regola did in 2004. SD 39 is also based in Greensburg.
- Republican Mark Mustio won re-election in PA House District 44 by a wider margin this year than in 2004. HD 44 includes portions of western Allegheny County, including North Fayette.
In short: Republicans running for re-election (or defending open seats) increased their margins over 2004, and won a Democratic-held open seat.
Why did Democrats perform so much worse this year in Western PA? There was a black man atop the ticket. That's a problem here, outside of Pittsburgh proper. Remember: these ten counties are included in federally-defined Appalachia, after all. And now, with the impending presidency of a black man, the racists are coming out of the woodwork, and doing so in increasingly violent ways.
What can we do about it? How can we reach out to people who very well might refuse to acknowledge the reality of an (ideally) effective black president?