New antisemitic incidents in North Carolina remind us that hate is connected

Someone spray painted a swastika on the Apex Senior Center last weekend. On Saturday afternoon, the center was to be the site of a holiday celebration hosted by Apex Pride, which included drag performers and a drag story hour. It was also the day before Hanukkah began. This happened just months after threats to Apex Pride’s organizers prompted the group to temporarily cancel drag story hour at Apex Pride.

The next day, a sign appeared over a bridge in Moore County. The sheriff’s office has not shared a photo of the sign, but says that it included multiple swastikas, the phrase “Bring it all down,” and the code “1488,” which stands for the white supremacist “14 words” slogan and the phrase “heil Hitler.” The sign was visible the morning of the first day of Hanukkah, and placed in a county that was recently shaken by intentional electrical damage that left around 45,000 households without power.

The two attacks this weekend happened just days after an incident at Enloe High School, where “heil Hitler” was announced over the intercom. In October, fliers promoting The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (one of the most notorious modern antisemitic texts) were found in Wake County neighborhoods more than once.

It’s hard to ignore the connections.

This is a tumultuous time in American history, and North Carolina is no outlier. Hate crimes are at a 20-year high; the Anti-Defamation League recorded more antisemitic incidents in 2021 than the last 40 years. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) found that North Carolina tied with Texas for the most threats and attacks on drag performers in the nation this year.

Antisemitism in particular has gone mainstream. Kanye West returned to Twitter a few weeks ago, only to be suspended once again when he made antisemitic statements on the website. Basketball player Kyrie Irving came under fire for promoting a film stained with antisemitism on social media. Donald Trump recently dined with Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist who denies the Holocaust even happened.

It’s easy to silo hate groups by their priorities — formally, a Nazi, neo-Confederate and Proud Boy all have different beliefs. But the undercurrent that runs through all of these ideologies is white supremacy. These incidents may appear to be separate, but the end goal is the same: striking fear in the hearts of targeted groups.

These incidents and the hate behind them will not go away unless we actively combat them. If we want it to be a more equitable and just society, we must face this harassment head-on.

Working toward an equitable future takes time, and requires education. Our students need to be having tough conversations about the world they were born into. Students need to be discussing race, religion and gender in a way that uplifts marginalized groups in society and the struggles they’ve dealt because of white supremacy. Some conservatives want to keep uncomfortable conversations out of classrooms, but doing this will only keep us from talking about obvious acts and consequences of hate.

Creating an equitable North Carolina also requires the General Assembly to do more. North Carolina’s hate crime law is ineffective. There are no protections based on sexual orientation at the state level, and law enforcement agencies are not required to submit their hate crime data to the federal government.

But politicians and educators cannot tackle hate by themselves. All of us, especially those who are not direct targets of hateful attacks, need to be paying attention and speaking out when incidents like this happen. White supremacy thrives when people ignore what doesn’t target them. All North Carolinians are our neighbors, no matter what religion they practice or who they fall in love with.

It is easy to ignore the troubling signs and threats to these communities, but doing so ignores the reality of our world: hate is all around us, and none of us are safe from it. It is our duty to our neighbors and ourselves to speak out against it, and try to create a North Carolina where we all thrive.