Last year, hateful graffiti was written on the homes of some Concord refugees (here) and apparently no one was caught (that we ever heard of), but again graffiti has appeared on the home of another Somali refugee family in that city.
This is the story from New Hampshire Public Radio:
Concord’s mayor Jim Bouley says the city isn’t going to tolerate hate crime against its refugee residents. On Sunday morning, a racist message written in black permanent marker appeared on the house of a Somali family in the city’s South End. Bouley stopped by NHPR to talk about this latest incident, which was nearly identical to graffiti that appeared on three refugee homes last fall.
Mayor Jim Bouley says he’s angry about the graffiti because it doesn’t represent the Concord he’s come to know. He says the city has seen seen tremendous benefits from becoming more diverse. [I just wish for once someone would tell us exactly how the community benefits from the diversity!—ed] Concord is home to about a thousand*** resettled refugees from countries like Bhutan and Somalia.
“My son is fourteen years old and he’s spent the last three years at Rundlett Junior High, and he has a much better experience a much more enriched educational experience by just the sheer fact that we are a community of many, and we embrace all.”
The Mayor also says that the city has gone to great lengths to build bridges between Concord neighborhoods and refugees, especially in light of racist messages that appeared on three South End homes last September.
“We had the multicultural festival each year, we have soccer games that were encouraged for all in the community to come and attend. This isn’t an incident where we rallied for one day and forgot about it, so to see these words, um, it’s absolutely disturbing.”
*** I just love this site! Go to WRAPS and check out the diversity resettled in your town since 2007. Of course, keep in mind that refugees resettled in Concord may have moved on and others have come in through secondary migration (that is where a refugee sent to X city decided to move to Concord to be with his or her own kind, you know, people of their own ethnicity).
According to the New Hampshire Dept. of Health and Human Services, here, there are several major federal contractors and subcontractors working with the US State Department to bring diversity to New Hampshire.
By the way, Nashua, NH was (is?) getting Rohingya Muslims, here.
From the WRAPS website, here is the diversity delivered to Concord since FY2007:
Bhutan….870
Burkina Faso….1
Burma….44
Burundi….58
Cameroon….4
Dem. Rep. of Congo….85
Eritrea….1
Ethiopia….3
Iran….3
Iraq….56
Liberia….7
Nigeria….5
Russia….5
Rwanda….10
Sierra Leone….1
Somalia….80
Sudan….18
Togo….6
Total…..1257 (the Democrat Mayor was close)
Here is my question, is there ever going to be a point in time for the multiculturalists and the diversity is beautiful advocates to say ‘O.K. we now have enough diversity‘? What is that magic number or magic combination of ethnic groups for us to see and feel the ultimate harmony? Can the Mayor tell us?