School District's 'Race and Equity Monitor' Declares Vile Graffiti Is Not Racist After Black Student Admits to It

Graffiti in a California school could have been racist if the hand that wrote it was white, but it is not so because it was done by a black student, according to the logic of the race and equity monitor for the Sacramento City Unified School District.

Earlier this month, the words “White” and “Colored” were scribbled over water fountains at C.K. McClatchy High School.

A black female student who was shown on video scrawling the words later confessed the incident, race and equity monitor Mark T. Harris said, according to KOVR-TV.

Harris said because the student was black the incident was not racist.

“I don’t believe those words that were on those water fountains were racist,” Harris said. “I do not believe they were hate crime or hate speech. Part of it quite honestly is because the admitted perpetrator is a young African American woman.”

Harris said the student who scribbled the words should not be unduly burdened by punishment, according to the Sacramento Bee.

“It was a prank that went sideways is my characterization of what the young woman said in her confession,” Harris said. “It should be a moment for our community to come together and make sure this doesn’t destroy this person’s life.”

We’re at McClatchy High School tonight looking into the discovery of racist graffiti on a campus water fountain. Here’s a link to the district’s statement about the incident:https://t.co/dk0DsebOe7$

⁦@kcranews⁩ pic.twitter.com/w2Qi9OWfHD

— Melanie Wingo | KCRA (@MelWingoKCRA) February 12, 2022

The school district claims it will take “appropriate disciplinary action.”

“Sac City Unified takes any instance of racial intolerance extremely seriously because such acts harm our students and our entire community,” Superintendent Jorge Aguilar said in the news release. “While identification of the person involved in this incident has been addressed, we also will remain focused on supporting the healing of students and staff who have been impacted by this troubling act of vandalism.”