Evanston resident confronts hate on the beach, while other sunbathers keep sunning.
This happened... earlier today... on Evanston’s Lighthouse beach.
Thank you for all you do and for recording this LaShandra Smith-Rayfield. I’m so sorry you had to go through this. We are up against so much, in all areas, the work has just begun.
Edited to add:
I must add a few things to this post:
1. These heinous people came to the beach with the intent to provoke, which is where our country is right now. They were not just "hanging out with, oh, their confederate towel/flag and minding their own business."
2. LaShandra Smith-Rayfield's approach was outstanding and one of the most courageous acts of constructive confrontation I've witnessed in a long time. 3. The man in the yellow shirt was complicit (in supporting the group and in telling LaShandra that "her" people have done nothing for this country, and, as LaShandra said, even though he didn't stand up against the hate, he was a target of it just as he gave it out.
4. Where was everyone else on Lighthouse beach today? All those white beach-goers who let LaShandra stand on her own (until a group who found out what was happening arrived to stand with her)?
This is not the time to be a bystander. See something, say something, or you are complicit in the hate.
5. Soon after Trump's election, I posted on DE about a swastika on a piece of playground equipment in an Evanston park. A white, non-Jewish woman roundly and insistently accused me of exaggerating the issue by posting it.
These symbols are hateful and dangerous. Wherever you see them, report them. Speak up. Be an upstander.
-- Nina Kavin
