Free Republic

An Arizona State University professor who posted on Twitter for years about social justice issues and recently detailed her fight with COVID-19 was said to have died last week — but she actually never existed. BethAnn McLaughlin — who announced the made-up professor’s death on July 31 — admitted to The New York Times on Tuesday that she was behind the hoax. “I take full responsibility for my involvement in creating the @sciencing_bi Twitter account,” she said in a statement through her lawyer. “My actions are inexcusable. I apologize without reservation to all the people I hurt.” Since 2016, the...

Nothing damages real claims of racism more than fake claims of racism. How many of these fake hate crimes have there been now? It’s impossible to keep up. From ‘poop swastikas,’ to the pull rope on a garage door, to bogus hijab-pullers, to Jussie Smollett, and so many others there has been a parade of people with their noses out of joint because ‘America is Racist’ who — on closer inspection — weren’t the victims of anything more than their own myopic need for attention and outrage. And it’s looking like we’ve got another such case at A&M. It started...

UMATILLA COUNTY, Ore. -- A man who claimed he received a hate-filled, racist letter from an anonymous person allegedly wrote the letter himself, Hermiston Police say.

The FBI is investigating after an apparent noose was found in the locker of a black firefighter in Bloomington, Minnesota, a spokesperson for the bureau confirmed to CBS News. The incident was first made public by the city's mayor, who said Saturday that "a piece of rope resembling a noose" was discovered in the locker on June 15. "I regret to inform you about some horrible news regarding an incident at one of the City's fire stations," Bloomington Mayor Tim Busse said in a statement. "A piece of rope tied into what appears to be a crude noose was discovered...

Authorities in Wisconsin are investigating a possible hate crime after an 18-year-old Black woman was set on fire. On Wednesday morning, Althea Bernstein was driving through downtown Madison when she stopped at a red light. Bernstein was sitting at the intersection with her window down when she heard someone yell a racial slur, she told police, CBS News reports. Moments later, she told police four white men appeared, with one spraying a liquid on her face and neck and throwing a flaming lighter at her. Bernstein told police she was able to drive away and put out the flames, but...

An assault on an 18-year-old biracial woman in Wisconsin is being investigated as a hate crime after she was set on fire in her car, according to the Madison Police Department. The victim, Althea Bernstein, told authorities she was stopped at a red light Wednesday with her driver's side window down when she heard someone yell a racial slur. It was at that point that four white men allegedly sprayed a liquid on her face and neck and then threw a flaming lighter at her, which caused the liquid to ignite, according to the incident report. Scared, Bernstein began to...

A black man who was shot inside Seattle's Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) last week claims it was a 'hate crime' carried out by a group of white supremacists who dropped the N-word before opening fire on him. DeJuan Young, 33, was shot in the arm on Saturday amid a weekend of gun violence in the police-free zone, also known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), that left two people wounded and a 19-year-old man dead.

Reports surfaced Sunday night that NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace was the apparent victim of a hate crime, after a “noose” was found hanging from the driver’s garage. In the midst of the reports, before the results of an investigation, The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill appeared on MSNBC airwaves to slam NASCAR and its fans for being what she suggested are anti-black racists. “This reminder is [a] very stunning, shocking, appalling, disgusting reminder of who, again, this sport is for,” Hill told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Monday, as noted by The Hill. “I’m very curious to see how NASCAR handles this, because...

NASCAR said it is investigating after a noose was found in the garage of black driver Bubba Wallace on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama. "Late this afternoon, NASCAR was made aware that a noose was found in the garage stall of the 43 team. We are angry and outraged, and cannot state strongly enough how seriously we take this heinous act," NASCAR said in a statement. "We have launched an immediate investigation, and will do everything we can to identify the person(s) responsible and eliminate them from the sport. "As we have stated unequivocally, there is no place...

Every single one in this photo will get what is coming to them," read the ominous Instagram message sent to several students of color at the University of La Verne, east of Los Angeles, in March 2019. The accompanying black-and-white photo was of a group of outspoken students who were well-known on campus for organizing anti-racism protests. Seen in the photo: Anayeli Dominguez Peña, a Mexican-American graduate student and vocal social-justice campaigner. She had been instrumental in organizing numerous protests in the Decolonize ULV group she co-led. "That wet back bitch Anayeli and that n---r Jasmine need to SHUT THEIR...

“Mulan” star Tzi Ma is frequently recognized for his many film and television roles, including in last year’s indie hit “The Farewell” and the “Rush Hour” films. But it was an encounter weeks ago that has stayed with him. Ma had visited a Whole Foods grocery store in Pasadena, Calif., when a car approached him as he made his way to the entrance. “He rolls down the window and goes, ‘You should be quarantined,’ and then he took off,” Ma told Variety. He said he stood, speechless, before unleashing screams at the verbal assaulter, who was by then long gone....

Philadelphia police have released images of the suspect wanted for spray-painting racial slurs on the Cecil B. Moore mural in North Philadelphia. Police say he was also caught spray-painting slurs at Brightside Academy and Habitat for Humanity. The incidents happened on Feb. 15, between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.

An African-American couple pulled their best Jussie Smollet impression by attacking their own car and blaming it on the Trumpers! As WREG reported an African-American Southaven couple said they woke up Tuesday morning to find racist graffiti had been spray-painted on two of their vehicles. Southaven Police confirmed they are investigating the reported vandalism on Marcia Louise Drive, and the FBI is also looking into the matter. The couple’s pickup truck has two N****** spray-painted on it. A car was painted with the phrase ‘Leave N******’ and ‘Trump.’ “This had to be unnerving for a quiet family to come out...

James Dees, 53, was released on bond from Leon County, Florida jail on Friday He was arrested after hidden camera caught him writing graffiti on airport walls Dees was fired from his job as a pilot for Endeavor Air, a Delta-owned subsidiary He admitted to police that he wrote racist graffiti against blacks, Hispanics The graffiti included '#MAGA,' 'TRUMP4EVER,' and 'Send them ALL back'  An airline pilot was caught on hidden camera vandalizing a Florida airport with graffiti that included racial slurs and slogans both supporting and opposing President Trump, according to authorities. James Dees, 53, was released on bond from a Leon County...

Hillary’s endorsement of Sybrina Fulton is no small thing. Rather, it is a significant piece in Hillary’s long history of promoting lies, hoaxes and the odious manipulation of events in order to advance her party’s political fortunes. That history ranges from Hillary’s trashing of women with whom her husband had affairs or had sexually assaulted, to preposterously claiming she’d come under sniper fire as First Lady while visiting Bosnia, to attempting to smear Donald Trump as an “agent of Russia” in her epic fail as a presidential candidate. I could go on, but we all know what a “congenital liar”...

Black Virginia girl who accused white boys of cutting her dreadlocks recants It sounded almost too outrageous to be true: A black girl attacked during recess at a private Christian school by three white boys who cut off her dreadlocks. As it turns out, it wasn’t true. The racially charged allegations made by 12-year-old Amari Allen were false, according to statements by her family and Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, Virginia, the latest example of what author and professor Wilfred Reilly calls an “epidemic of hoax hate crimes.” “I would say most of the highly publicized hate crime incidents in...

Last month, 12-year-old Amari Allen appeared on television to share how she had been brutalized by racist white boys at Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, Virginia. .... When the story first broke, left-wing politicians and activists raged. Rep. Rashida Tlaib published a personalized message on Twitter to the girl: “You see, Amari, you may not feel it now but you have a power that threatens their core. I can’t wait to watch you use it and thrive.” On Twitter, some even found a way to blame the Trump administration, noting ominously that Vice President Mike Pence’s wife, Karen, teaches art...

Actor Jussie Smollett has hit back at a social media post comparing him to a schoolgirl who claimed she was pinned down and had her dreadlocks cut off. Self-help internet star, Derrick Jackson, posted a comment on Instagram comparing the former Empire actor to Amari Allen, who alleged three white boys hacked off her hair, then retracted the claims. Smollett then fired back in a lengthy post, claiming he 'hadn't lied about a thing', when he alleged two men attacked him in a racial and homophobic assault. The row started when The Shade Room posted a screenshot on Instagram of...

A black sixth grader at a Fairfax County, Virginia, private school said she was attacked by white classmates who then cut her hair while taunting her with racist insults this week. Amari Allen is a student at Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, and she said the incident happened during recess Monday. Allen alleges that three white classmates attacked her on the playground and pinned her down against a slide. “They put my hands behind my back, put a hand over my mouth and they tried to cut my hair,” said Allen. She said the students were calling her hair “nappy”...

A private school in Fairfax County, Virginia, has confirmed that the allegations of a student who accused her classmates of cutting her hair and making racist insults were false. Immanuel Christian School in Springfield said in a statement that it is going to enter a “long season of healing.” The school said Monday that it is grateful to the police for their diligent work to investigate the allegations. Fairfax County police investigated the alleged assault. The family of the 12-year-old student who made the accusations said in a statement via the school that they sincerely apologize to the accused boys...