"You Don't Belong Here"

For the past couple of weeks in our American Studies class, we have been discussing class structure and how classism affects American society. A point often brought up was how when a person or family of a non-white ethnicity moves into a primarily-white neighborhood, there can be (and often is) a feeling of a lack of acceptance. While these discussions have also often dealt with hypotheticals, a recent example of such rejection shows just how real this issue is.

This past Thursday, Ronica Copes of Lindenhurst, NY found this anonymous note (addressed to her family) inside her mailbox: 

The letter found in Copes' mailbox - originally inside an envelope with the return address, "The Community" - is riddled with racist remarks. 

It doesn't take much explanation to recognize the vile and racist nature of this letter, which clearly states that based solely on the color of their skin, Copes and her family are not welcome in (and are in fact, damaging to) the Lindenhurst community. Copes' mother, one of the family members currently living in the home, describes her reaction to it as going from “being fearful, protecting my family, to being totally confused, and wanted to know who and why... Today, it becomes even deeper: is it someone in the school district, is it the guy at the corner store, is it my neighbor down the street? Where?”

In the aftermath of the letter, many members of the community reached out to the Copeses to offer support and words of encouragement (obviously showing that the letter was not "coming from the Lindenhurst community"). The letter has been sent off for DNA testing, and hopefully, the perpetrator will be caught as soon as possible. Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone mentioned in his statement, "To the coward who committed a hate crime against an innocent family in Lindenhurst -- There is no place for intolerance in Suffolk County. I know the Suffolk County Police Department will do everything possible to solve this hate crime, out you and see you punished."

While through this information we see that this is clearly not a matter of an entire community vs one family, but rather a matter of one or a few people with ignorant beliefs vs one family, that fact that anyone should have to receive this kind of hateful message in their own home is issue enough. The sender of this letter demonstrates just the kind of obstacles that African Americans in our society have to face everyday, even in something as simple as finding an accepting home and community.

What's interesting to take away from this situation is how the rigidity of the American class structure relates to ever-present racism in America. Since the Copeses have been living in Lindenhurst for years, there's no question that they belong there based on numerical values such as wealth. However, once looking at their race, some individuals feel that they don't belong in Lindenhurst, but rather where there are "more people like [them]," implying a lower-income, more racially segregated area. Although this incident is somewhat isolated and extreme, it highlights something that should exist in no quantity whatsoever. The steps to eliminating it could be extensive, but for now, Copes and her family are standing their ground: "You don't have a right to force us to go anywhere... And we have every right to stay."