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.”
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“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.”
Despite the vandalism being solved, black voices were raised in protest.
“Why is it when you find something like this we find the black students quicker than we find the white students,” said Betty Williams, president of the Greater Sacramento NAACP.
She was irked that the student confessing came before any resolution to racist graffiti that was scrawled months ago at West Campus High School.
“I want you to put that same energy into West Campus. I want you to put that same energy into every school district that’s dealing with these issues. It’s a problem. We have racism that’s rooted in this school district,” she continued.
Activist Berry Accius of the group Voice of the Youth said writing the graffiti was an “ignorant” act.
He said, however, that that incident is not the real problem.
“Because of the racism here in this school, the microaggressions here in this school, makes me feel like I do not belong. This is a problem, not only with the school but the district,” Accius said. “And this is why we’ve been loud.”
Accius said he does not trust the district and wants some kind of video proof shared to show it was a black student, and not a white one, who drew the words on the wall, according to the Daily Mail.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.