3 days ago
Negro League mural in Miami vandalized with racist graffiti
In early June, in Dorsey Park, Miami, Florida, a 7-year-old boy discovered that a mural that included Jackie Robinson and Minnie Miñoso had been defaced with racial slurs and Nazi swastikas.
While we all had to endure the ongoing saga of the destroyed Jackie Robinson statue of Witchia, Kansas, last year, the only silver linings were that it was an act of thieves, not racists, and the theft and destruction had the unintended benefit of pulling the citizens of Witchia together.
Unfortunately, the act clearly seems to be racially motivated.
Trent Kelly of WPLG 10 Tampa reported that Miami leaders, artists, and residents are already trying to restore the Kyle Holbrook mural, which was commissioned in 2012.
'Today we are here to document that a hate crime has happened in our community,' Metris Batts-Coley, of the Overtown Business Association, said.
'What you see behind me is not paint on the wall, it's pain, it's hate, it's disgrace,' added Anthony Robinson, of the Overtown Children and Youth Coalition.
'The individual who did this is hurting, the individual who did this feels that they have been embodied with the ability to spill their hate back onto a community that has not served them hate,' Terrance Cribbs-Lorrant, of the Miami Black Police Precinct Museum, said.
The mural was covered but has now been uncovered as resources are being marshalled to remove the graffiti. The park was the former home of the city's Negro League baseball team.
The Miami Marlins issued a statement expressing dismay over the vandalism last week.
Oddly enough, Holbrook, a Pittsburgh, PA resident, had two of his murals defaced over the same rough period: the one in Dorsey Park and another in Oakland, CA.
The Oakland murals had nothing to do with Jackie Robinson but were focused on racial inclusion. And yet the installation was also defaced with slur and Nazi imagery.
No arrests have been made. We will provide any relevant updates as they become available.
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