White Supremacy in Orange County is real and becoming more overt.
In the month of July alone the following blatant racist events occurred:
During a Chapel Hill “Black Lives Matter” vigil, a white man punched a 19-year-old black woman in the face while yelling and cursing at her. The violence was witnessed by the man’s 6-year-old daughter.
In Hillsborough, in broad daylight, a car with two white male occupants pulled up to the curb on Churton Street where a black man holding a “Black Lives Matter” sign was standing and threatened him, pointing two AR-15s.
Last week, Vimala’s Curryblossom Café in Chapel Hill, owned by a longtime social justice activist and community leader Vimala Rajendran, was the target of a possible attempted arson.
Sunday afternoon, July 26th, a Northern Orange NAACP virtual town hall meeting was overrun by white supremacists, who posted racial slurs and gross vulgarity, combined with pro-Trump images.
Right here, in the “Southern Part of Heaven,” where many like to boast of our community’s progressive image, white supremacy is alive and well, and seems to be emboldened by the current national rhetoric that promotes white power and reveres Confederate monuments.
Now is the time for all Orange County citizens who abhor these actions to step up! Now is the time for all who are disgusted by the spreading disease of racism to stand up! Now is the time for all who recognize white supremacy to speak up!
Now is the time to focus our energy on ridding our community, our State House, our Congress, and our White House of those who enable the hate. It is time to live the values we say we have. Vote. Commit to making sure 20 other people you know vote. Volunteer at the polls on Election Day.
Above all, do not be distracted by the displays of bigotry and racism. In the next 99 days we are likely to see more desperate attempts to make us take our eyes off the target. We won’t “fall for the okey-doke.” We see you, Racist! We are calling you out! We will continue to fight! We will win!
Anna Richards
President
Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP
