David Neiwert: Listen to the beat

Saturday, June 04, 2005
Just like clockwork, the beat of white-supremacist hatred keeps on drumming, the latest manifestation in Santa Clara, California, where swastikas and hate slogans were etched into lawns [registration req'd] in a mixed-race neighborhood:
They started on May 18 when Robert Richardson, on his day off from work, stepped out to mow his lawn and saw a yellowed pattern burned into the grass. Standing over it, he couldn't decipher what it said.

"I knew it spelled something but I couldn't see what it said," said Richardson, 43, an African-American, who earlier this year moved into the neighborhood.

He got on the roof and saw "I hate" followed by a crude slur.

"Nothing like that has ever happened to me before. It was really a shock," said Richardson, who grew up in the Bay Area.