Black Democratic chair gets lynching threat over Trump essay
The first Black chair of Iowa’s Democratic Party says he received a series of racist messages, including a lynching threat, after writing an opinion piece in a local newspaper criticizing former President Donald Trump and the state Republican officials who stood with him at a recent rally in Des Moines.
Ross Wilburn, who is also a state representative from Ames, reported the threatening phone and email messages to local police and state investigators. The messages came after The Des Moines Register's online publication of Wilburn's op-ed on Oct. 8, the day before thousands of Trump supporters gathered at the Iowa State Fairgrounds for the rally. Several in the crowd carried Confederate flags.
Wilburn's experience is part of an uptick in racist and threatening communications aimed at Black leaders in Iowa and across the country, according to targets of the communications and a group that monitors them. The rise in threats against public officials began with the start of the pandemic as COVID-19 restrictions were implemented and continued through the divisive 2020 election
“With only some of our political leaders condemning that violence appropriately, these extremists are getting the message that making threats of violence is an acceptable way of doing business here," said Michael Hayden, a researcher with the nonprofit group that tracks far-right figures and organizations.
Democratic Rep. Ross Smith, who is also Black, said Wilburn's experience has become more familiar.
Smith, who represents Iowa City, says he has seen racist attempts at intimidation since he ran for the Iowa House in 2016. That year, he and other Black candidates received pamphlets from a group calling itself “The New KKK" that stated lynching is “for amateurs.”
“It's not new. But the level of intensity has reached the next level," said Smith, who is seeking his party's nomination for governor.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...ocid=Peregrine
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