Racist graffiti is troubling a Grand Rapids, Michigan, neighborhood after hate speech was spray painted on one family’s garage door and on the street just down the road.
The crime occurred overnight, Monday, on the southeast side of the city, on Clearbrook St. Owners Dianne Decator and husband have been living at the residence for five years and claim they have never seen anything like it.
“I was woken up by my neighbor pounding on my door and he came out and basically asked me if I knew what was on my door,” Decator told local WOOD TV 8.
Decator was dismayed to find “We hate Negroes!” sprayed onto her garage door in red paint, and in cursive no less. Next to it she also found a large star, along with a Nazi swastika between the words “White Power!”
Even worse, however, in an obvious echo of the Michael Brown shooting that has caused so much direct action and dissent across the country in its wake, local residents also found a “deceased” stick figure with its eyes crossed out spray painted in the middle of the road down the street. Above the image was the phrase, “A DEAD N*GGER,” with an arrow pointing to the body.
When interviewed about the graffiti Decator said she is “Very surprised. We are a very quiet neighborhood. We all kind of keep to ourselves and it was like, who in the heck would do that?”
Decator claims her neighborhood is pretty diverse, which adds to her puzzlement over the matter. While white herself, the family living right next door to her are African American, with children, and they have had to see all the hate since Tuesday morning, like everyone else. “They are all really upset. They are all wondering if it’s against the African American population here, so nobody can figure out what is going on,” she said.
Decatur, of course, hopes the vandals will be caught soon. She stated:
“I don’t know how you have the nerve to do it. It’s very disturbing. I don’t even have words to say what I would say. It’s scary to know that someone was that close to my house and all the things they have done to the people emotionally. It’s pretty crappy.”
Whether the incident is a result of juvenile vandalism or adults with a prejudiced grudge, one thing is certain: Either way, racism in America is as common as fields of grain, and stretches from sea to shining sea.
Featured image by WOOD TV 8 video screen capture, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
