It goes without saying that the racial climate in America has been horrible. We can blame Donald Trump, which wouldn't be invalid, but truthfully this has been going on since the beginning of this country and never really stopped. Racists are just feeling empowered right now, and they're passing those awful ideas and empowerment down to their children. 

That is what left one 8-year-old boy in Claremont, New Hampshire with rope burns all over his neck. NH1 reports that the little boy had to be flown to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center after an older teenage boy allegedly hung him from a tree by a rope placed around his neck. 

His mother, Cassandra Merlin, took to Facebook to talk more about the incident. 

Claremont Police Chief Mark Chase would not comment on the specifics of the case, only that they were still investigating an incident that happened last Monday. Chase said the fact that the people involved are juveniles prohibits him from confirming any facts or talking specifically about the incident. He did confirm the youngest person involved was 8-years-old and the oldest were teenagers but beyond that would not give more specific details about ages or identities.

"These people need to be protected," he said. “Mistakes they make as a young child should not have to follow them for the rest of their life." 

Very interesting as well as very telling how the youth of white children is viewed vs. the youth and childhood of black children.

City Manager Ryan McNutt also declined to comment for the same reason. He asked the public to let the investigation play out.

“It was an unfortunate incident between some juveniles,” McNutt said. “Folks should have confidence in the law enforcement investigation.”

Despite the shadiness of the police department and the city in general, The Valley News has reported that the family is still seeking answers. 

The boy’s grandmother, Lorrie Slattery, said her grandson and a group of teenagers were playing in a yard in their neighborhood around 5 p.m. on Aug. 28 when the teens started calling the boy "racial epithets," and throwing sticks and rocks at his legs.

“The (teenagers) said, ‘Look at this,’ supposedly putting the rope around their necks,” Slattery said. “One boy said to (her grandson), ‘Let’s do this,’ and then pushed him off the picnic table and hung him.”

She said an interviewer who specializes in child abuse and spoke to her grandson at DHMC said the boy swung back and forth by his neck three times before he was able to remove the rope from his neck; Slattery said none of the teens came to his aid.

It should also be noted that according to the 2010 census, Claremont’s population is overwhelmingly white. It is 96 percent white, Only 0.6 percent African-American, and 1.8 percent biracial.

This is very obviously racially charged, and the fact that city officials are trying to play it like it isn't is gross. From this we can tell that most likely nothing will happen to the people who did this if it's up to the city of Claremont. We can only hope that this story will get more traction and light a fire under this community to actually do something about it.