"Hate burns a hole in the heart." — anonymous
In 1973, Richard Butler moved his neo-Nazi organization Aryan Nations to Hayden Lake, Idaho. Butler preached a thoroughly perverted version of the story of Adam and Eve. The Aryan race descends from Abel, but his “half” brother Cain was the result of Satan having sex with Eve. From Cain came all the non-white races (including the Jews) and they, Butler declared, “are not merely inferior but must be destroyed.”
In 2000, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of a mother and son who were shot at and racially harassed by Butler’s security guards. They won a $6.3 million award that forced the Aryans Nations into bankruptcy. The buildings were dismantled and it is now a park devoted to peace and human rights.
In response to the Aryan Nations’ threat, former Gov. Cecil Andrus coined the slogan “Idaho Is Too Great for Hate,” and it appeared on road signs all over the state. Andrus would have been dismayed to learn that northern Idaho is again the home of at least a dozen hate groups, including the Patriot Front, the People’s Rights Network and the Panhandle Patriots.
On June 11, 2022, 31 members of the Patriot Front were arrested as they were on their way to disrupt a Pride celebration in Coeur d’Alene. They were all packed into a U-Haul truck and police found riot gear including shields and a smoke grenade. One year later, five from the group were convicted of charges of conspiracy to riot.
In March of this year, Coeur d’Alene was hit by two incidents of racial harassment. Women basketball players from Utah were accosted by a man hurling racial epithets driving by their hotel. Students at an Indian school were also subject to racial harassment.
Later in May, men shouted “kill Blacks” at mixed-race soccer players from Nelson, British Columbia, who were at a tournament in Coeur d’Alene. Prosecutors declined to bring charges in each of these incidents because hate speech is protected by the First Amendment.
In Coeur d’Alene there is a new law making hate speech a crime, but Tony Stewart of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations clarified that “a threat of violence using hate speech isn’t protected by the First Amendment, but proving an intent to harm can be difficult.” An earlier case in the city was prosecuted successfully because the accused told a person of color “to leave town or be killed.”
Let me now turn to Donald J. Trump: a master of lies and hate speech. He has spewed hatred for Mexicans, Blacks and Muslims, but today I want to focus on the people of Haiti, one of his favorite “s*hole” countries.
In a 2017 meeting, then-President Trump declared that no Haitians should be allowed into the country even though they were eligible for the Visa Lottery System. The reason Trump gave for keeping Haitians out was that they “all have AIDS.”
Haiti was in fact hit hard by the AIDS epidemic, but its infection rate was never more than 2% — far lower than most African countries. The infection rate in Southern Africa, for example, ranges from 11% to 28%.
At a 2018 White House meeting, Trump again condemned people from Haiti, and this time the backlash was widespread. Haitian immigrant Farah Larrieux responded: “This is a racial campaign against immigrants. This makes me sick.”
U.N. spokesman Robert Colville told reporters that Trump’s remarks are “shocking and shameful” and they “legitimize the targeting of people based on who they are. This could potentially damage and disrupt the lives of many people.”
Colville’s predictions, sadly, have come true in Springfield, Ohio. In the Sept. 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump hurled a vile charge at Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio: “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats.”
City officials repeatedly denied these reports, and GOP Gov. Mike DeWine ordered state troopers to secure schools that had received bomb threats. The Haitians fear for their lives and some are considering leaving the city.
In an op-ed in The New York Times, DeWine wrote that “Springfield is having a resurgence in manufacturing. Some of that is thanks to the dramatic influx of Haitian migrants. They are there legally. They are there to work.”
Let’s work hard to make sure that the Master of Lies and Hate does not occupy the White House again.
Gier is a long-time member of the Latah Human Rights Task Force (established during the time of the Aryan Nations.) Read his articles on civil rights at bit.ly/3vPiVD1. Email him at ngier006gmail.com.
