Source: News & Observer
Perhaps taking a cue from popular Republican “leaders” such as Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and ex-President Donald Trump, hatemongers targeted two candidates in Chatham County and sent them messages containing homophobic and racist threats, according to The News & Observer.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections is now investigating the racist and homophobic threats against a Latino candidate who ran to be the next Siler City mayor and a Black candidate for the Chatham County Board of Commissioners, The N&O said.
According to The N&O, county commission candidate Rev. Albert Reddick and mayoral candidate Nick Gallardo received “numerous hateful text messages” ahead of the May 17 primary election.
Raw Story first reported the news after Reddick and Gallardo shared the horrific messages and images with the organization.
According to multiple news organizations, “Threatening messages sent to Reddick included racist imagery involving nooses to suggest a mock lynching.”
Gallardo, on the other hand, received more than 100 messages, “many of which were homophobic or violent in nature,” according to The N&O. Gallardo told the newspaper that he was also tailed multiple times while driving through the county.
WRAL reported that one message Gallardo received “threatened him and the three other candidates under the ‘Unity 2022’ ticket in the race, saying, ‘I hope y’all get AIDS and die.’”
Gallardo told WRAL that he does not identify as gay.
This is not the first time Chatham County has been in the news for racist incidents.
In March, the county received national attention after a student told his mother that he and other Black students had to take part in a mock “slave auction” at JS Waters Elementary School in Goldston, according to CBS 17.
“These incidents were what we have described as pure blatant racism,” the child’s mother said at a rally following the incident. “This is not diversity and inclusion, this is not equity, this is racism and deserves to be treated as such.”
In response to the slave auction, Chatham County Superintendent Anthony Jackson apologized and “laid out a plan he said will begin the healing process and ensure this never happens again,” CBS 17 reported.
