Last week, the first-ever black mayor-elect of predominantly white Westlake, Louisiana, Gerald Washington, was found shot in the chest (and his death was ruled a suicide, in spite of there being no note and it being days before he was due to take office), and now the first-ever black mayor of predominantly white Greenwood, Louisiana, Ernest Lampkins, has had two shotgun blasts fired into his home (and luckily no one was injured). The two towns are 150 miles apart.
Could be just terrible coincidence. One may have nothing to do with the other. But, then again, there's been a 33% increase in hate groups since 2000, during which time our country has been led by a president and a political party who have exploited hatred of brown-skinned people consistently and egregiously, alternatingly telling their primarily white base that they'll be killed by Arabs or have their jobs stolen by Mexicans. So maybe this shit isn't happening in a motherfucking void.
Could be just terrible coincidence. One may have nothing to do with the other. But, then again, there's been a 33% increase in hate groups since 2000, during which time our country has been led by a president and a political party who have exploited hatred of brown-skinned people consistently and egregiously, alternatingly telling their primarily white base that they'll be killed by Arabs or have their jobs stolen by Mexicans. So maybe this shit isn't happening in a motherfucking void.
