I shared my story and fight against hate speech with Camden Hills Regional High School's The Anchor. Read on and learn how I plan to face the uncertainty of the next four years...
By Joergen Ostensen
Environmental activist, Erin Schrode, spoke to me on December 13, in an interview for The Anchor. Previously, she had been the subject of an Anchor editorial which condemned the actions of police at Standing Rock, North Dakota. The police shot her with a rubber bullet while she was overtly acting as a journalist. The editorial also discussed that the lack of coverage of this event was a disservice to democracy. This is the final part of a four part series of articles resulting from my conversation.
Erin Schrode has experienced significant backlash from dissenters, particularly in cyberspace, for posting the video of being shot by police at Standing Rock and for speaking out on environmental and social issues.
Schrode, who is Jewish, particularly felt the brunt of anti-semitic “hate speech.” After she tweeted out the video of her shooting, she received horrible comments on social media. “…most of that [death threats and hate speech] is because I’m jewish…most of that is anti-semitic…after I was shot they said, ‘don’t you know rubber bullets don’t work on her kind…try xyclone B…’ Xyclone B is the gas that the Nazi’s used to exterminate jews in the death camps during World War II. They said, ‘I wish they were real bullets…’ They sent me a picture of my body lying dead at the feet of the…officers who shot me with blood coming out and gestapo armbands…above me. These people are horrors. This is evil.”
Schrode said that the people partaking in these disgusting exchanges belong to the alt-right which she said is no longer a cloaked and anonymous faction in America. She said that President-elect Donald Trump and his chief strategist Steve Bannon, have legitimized these people. “Call them what they are, their neo-Nazis, their white supremacists, their sexists, their bigots. Unfortunately, this is no longer a small fringe movement in society, these are people unabashedly out in the open, not cloaked in any darkness or anonymity, who see a president [elect] legitimizing their views…” Shrode made it clear that she was not saying that these viewpoints are universal of Trump supporters. “But these people are doing it…in the name of the president-elect, who has refused to categorically denounce hate speech, which is reprehensible.”
Schrode who was a guest with Tucker Carlson on the conservative news network, FOX News, said that in the aftermath of that interview she received “hundreds of thousands of pieces of hate speech and hate mail.”
Schrode also pointed out that there has been a spike in open hate speech toward many minorities, not only jews. She described the next four years of the as a “time of uncertainty” as she does not expect the Trump administration to combat the hateful rhetoric.
Schrode, who ran for congress in her home state of California in 2016, said that she plans to run again.
For more from Erin Schrode on anti-semitism in America: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/this-filthy-jewess-is-done-with-alt-right-bullshit_us_5835b6cfe4b0c2ab94436657
Read this article on The Anchor.