by Leslie Layton
The complaint about the Down Range “Black Friday Matters” billboard was one of five that has so far been submitted to the Documenting Hate database from Butte County. Four other reports were made on use of racist epithets and stereotyping.
Here’s a summary:
A flier at Chico State was defaced shortly after the 2016 presidential election with white supremacist symbols;
A Latina in Chico says she was called a “wetback;”
A Chico teacher reported that her son was riding his bike to school when a car pulled up next to him and someone shouted, “Fuck you, Jew boy.”
An Oroville man reported that someone was overheard saying of him, “That’s a Muslim right there.” On the report submitted to the database, the man wrote, “… I have never felt like I don’t belong here as I do now. Since the beginning of 2016, people look at me differently… I wish things were different.” In a telephone interview, the man said he has Arab ancestry, is a U.S. military veteran and was raised as a Christian. He asked not to be identified. He said the shift in how he’s perceived by strangers is hard to “quantify” but palpable.
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