PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. – Sweet treats at a Jewish teen’s birthday party in Paradise Valley turned into an offensive message after young party goers decided to decorate their cupcakes with swastika symbols.

Pictures of the swastika topping began spreading on social media after the teen’s mom posted about what happened on Facebook, writing that she hoped it could be used as a teaching moment for parents.

According to the post the girls are all friends and told the Jewish teen’s mom they did it to “be funny.”

The teen’s mother also posted that her daughter and the girls at the party had just had a lesson on the holocaust, so she believed they knew very well what the symbol meant.

Carlos Galindo-Elvira, the director of the Anti-Defamation League in Arizona says parents need to teach their children about the meaning symbols tied to acts of hate like the swastika.

“When you joke with symbols like the swastika you begin to normalize them and make it very casual within our society,” Galindo Elvira told 12 News.

“It’s a joke!” “It’s funny!” No, it’s not a joke. No, it isn’t funny. I never see an explanation as to just what makes this sort of thing funny. All I see is an increase in an empathy deficit in people. That’s no joking matter either. Via KPNX.

In 1866, a group of former slaves established what would become the Liberty Baptist Church at the corner of 7th and Oak Street in the town of Evansville, IN. That church—Evansville’s first black Baptist congregation—was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and has, for more than 150 years, been a mainstay of the local community.

This year, members of Liberty Baptist were enjoying the church’s seventh annual Thanksgiving dinner when a neighbor reportedly called Reverend Todd Robertson to tell him that someone had vandalized the church’s back door and van with violent, racist threats: “Kill all koons” on the building and “Koons inside” on the vehicle.

Via Fusion.

Oh look, a fine example of that wonderful white master race:

A white Florida man has been charged with battery after he was accused of punching an Hispanic man in the back of the head “for Donald Trump.”

The Gainesville Sunreported that the incident occurred on Nov. 10 while the victim was cleaning the parking lot at a Gate Food Post store in Gainesville.

According to a police report obtained by Egberto Willies, Caleb Joseph Illig arrived at the parking lot at around 1:10 a.m. and began punching Pablo Echevarria in the back of the head.

The report said that Illig shouted, “Let’s Trump down,” as he punched Echevarria. When Echevarria asked why he was being attacked, Illig reportedly replied, “This is for Donald Trump.”

[…]

On Nov. 20, Illig told officers that he had “no recollection of the incident whatsoever,” and suggest that bipolar disorder and alcohol were to blame.

Via Raw Story.

OREGON CITY, Ore. — 15-year-old Joy Simmons is a freshman studying engineering at the Clackamas Academy of Industrial Sciences (CAIS) in Oregon City.

The African-American student told KATU she found racist notes scrawled with the N-word in her binder twice this month.

Now Simmons, her mother and a local activist want the Oregon City School District to ask for an outside investigation. They said their request is about more than the notes Simmons discovered.

Just last month, students at nearby Oregon City High School walked out over some well-publicized racist incidents.

“It’s just kind of sad,” Simmons said. “I’m shocked that it would even happen.”

Simmons, who claims she’s the only black female student at CAIS, said she found the first note two weeks ago.

“I was in my class getting ready for a test and I opened my binder to get some supplies,” Simmons explained, “and I saw a note and it had the N-word on it and I immediately went to the office and called my mom and she came in and talked to the principal.”

Then a week before Thanksgiving Simmons said she found another one.

“It was before school in the morning,” Simmons said. “I was getting ready to

finish up some homework and it was sitting there right in front of my binder. It just fell out. … It said ‘Go back to Africa, (N-word).'”

She hasn’t been back to school since.

Via KATU.

Teachers have reported nearly 2,500 “negative incidents” of bigotry and harassment at U.S. schools in the first 10 days since Donald Trump’s election as president.

More than 10,000 teachers and other educators responded to an online survey administered by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project, and 90 percent of respondents said the election had negatively impacted students’ behavior and mood.

Eight in 10 respondents said they were anxious and concerned for their students, especially black, Muslim and LGBT children and teens, and they were worried how Trump’s election would affect themselves and their families.

The teachers reported a noticeable increase in verbal harassment, the use of slurs and other derogatory language, and incidents involving swastikas, Nazi salutes and Confederate imagery.

Many of the incidents involved students taunting classmates with variations on Trump’s campaign rhetoric, such as threats to build a wall around or deport Latino students.

Via Raw Story.