Trumpism on Long Island, New York

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Sun May 16, 2021, 07:57 AM - Edit history (3)

- Smithtown, New York residents prefer a mythical version of the town's history rather than an account of its racist past.
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Daily Kos, May 15, 2021.

The conspiracy theories at the core of Trumpism are infecting at least one Long Island school board election scheduled for May 18. In Smithtown, a group that calls itself “Save Our Schools” charges that school officials are indoctrinating students with a Black Lives Matter and an anti-police agenda. The group, another one calling itself Long Island Loud Majority, and the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association are endorsing 3 school board candidates, Stacy Murphy, John Savoretti and Karen Wontrobski-Ricciardi, who they claim will challenge the “War on Police.” In a not so subtle anti-Semitic jab, the Save Our Schools newsletter tried to connect “left-leaning” school board and district leaders to George Soros, a Jewish businessman and philanthropist who is identified with social justice issues. Save Our Schools accuses Smithtown officials of being part of a conspiracy to shift New York’s courts, policing, housing, and education systems towards socialism.

They claim “Students that are considered ‘white’ are being severely targeted” and “History class is being used to mislead students about the founding principles of America.” The Smithtown school district is one of the most overwhelmingly white school districts on Long Island.

This is not the first time race and racism reared their ugly head in Smithtown. In January, some Smithtown parents protested because Diamond Essence White, who was scheduled read an excerpt from the children's book "Not Quite Snow White" at the town’s Family Literacy Night, was identified as a Black Lives Matter activist. After an anonymous letter denouncing White’s participation was read at a school board meeting, Smithtown School Superintendent Mark Secaur actually apologized for not doing a “better job vetting this person and her social media history prior to her participation." Six months earlier, in June 2020, counter-protesters cursed and attacked people participating in a Black Lives Matter rally at the Smithtown LIRR train station. No arrests were made, but the Suffolk County Hate Crimes Unit was called in to investigate.

There are a number of reasons that some Smithtown residents might want to whitewash the town’s history and keep the past out of the classroom. Richard Smythe, its 17th century founder, was a major Suffolk County slaveholder, as was another leading local family, the Tredwells. According to a 1698 Suffolk County census, about 20% of the county’s population were enslaved Africans. By some estimates, more than two-thirds of the white families in Smithtown were slaveholders at the time of the American Revolution. Town records show that local ordinances were designed to control the local enslaved African population. In the 1920s, there was A Ku Klux Klan presence in Smithtown. Photographs show Klan members in full regalia gathering at Smithtown’s Assembly Hall on Main Street and attending a funeral. After the publisher of The Smithtown Messenger barged into a Klan meeting a cross was burned on his lawn.

Historians estimate that during the 1920s, over 10% of Long island adults were Klan members.

According to Elaine Gross, President of ERASE Racism, "Long Island is one of the 10 most racially segregated metro regions in the nation, and our schools are becoming more segregated. Yet efforts to advance inclusion and racial equity have emerged as a hot-button issue in the upcoming school board election in Smithtown.” Gross sees the issues in Smithtown as a “microcosm” of a national conservative movement to suppress discussion of systemic racism in schools and efforts to address racial discrepancies. ~

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/15/2030610/-Trumpism-on-Long-Island

- Camp Siegfried, Nazi Bund 1930s, Yaphank, Long Island, NY also in Suffolk Co, NY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Siegfried

- Suffolk Close Up, Organized Hate in Suffolk County
https://shelterislandreporter.timesreview.com/2020/12/06/suffolk-closeup-organized-hate-in-suffolk-county/

[TomDaisy]

1. Save our Schools attacked our school board the same way and we are

thousands of miles away from NY.


This is a movement across the country.

[appalachiablue]

2. These groups are really expanding, troubling

Who's funding I wonder

[TomDaisy]

6. I'm so angry

[Rhiannon12866]

3. Oh, Good Grief! It's always George Soros

A couple of years back, I went to a local protest over the treatment of children at the southern border which was held here in Northeastern New York (across from Rep. Elise Stefanik's local office). There was great turnout for a small city, a few hundred, but a handful of MAGA counter protesters showed up with their flags and bullhorn, they were quite disruptive, unlike the rest of the crowd. I was pleased to see quite a few people there that I knew - and this one lady I spoke with said that the MAGA people were saying that we had all been bused in from New York City by George Soros.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

5. Unlike the "Deep State"

Soros is a real-life bogeyman to the right-wing wackos.

How Soros seems to be able to be everywhere at once to them amazes me.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. 1920s, rural LI, a red state all by itself

a "presence"? I thought i saw articles online that they were elected to country government at that time.