*Late in November, a (Black Panther) mural that celebrated the achievements of African Americans was defaced with Nazi Swastikas. Police on the scene had said that they were investigating the incident and think it is a potential hate crime.
A dozen artists had collaborated to paint a mural that covered an area of almost two-blocks. This was made back in the year 2002 and took 2 long years to complete. The curator of the mural, who is also a film maker – Gregory Everett, said that the mural was called ‘Our Might Contribution’ and it stood as a representation of all the historical contributions of the Black community. The most prominent features in this mural include Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglass.
Over the past couple of years, only a few people have been able to scribble their names on the wall – which was probably alright. But now four swastikas have been spray painted over the painted faces of the Black Panthers.
A political commentator and strategist – Jasmyne Cannick was quoted after incident to have said that the hate crime was upsetting, devastating and an absolute travesty. She was the first one on the scene and had gone ahead to alert the police right away. She went on to add that this mural was a source of pride for her community and was a beautiful representation of their history.
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Jasmyne wasn’t the only one who took to social media to condemn the hate crime though. Among the social media posts was an artist who hailed from Los Angeles and was among the few who painted portions of the mural. Enkone Goodlow had even gone back to the mural to touch up the damages to what he called “some of my beloved Black Panthers.”
Goodlow then made a statement saying that a lot of people believed that the Black Panthers were a hate groups as well because they had a disdain hate for whites – but people were wrong. “The only thing that the Black Panthers had problems with was hate itself.” said Goodlow in order to correct the perception of those who are mistaken.
The Black Panthers had started their movement in ’66 with Huey Newton as their leader. They started urban riots against the killing and beating of people from the Black community and most of these occurred in mysterious circumstances. This why Newton found a loophole in the law of California and then went ahead with his fellow Panther to monitor all the police patrols in Black communities while wielding loaded weapons.
Due to this very reason, Gregory Everett believes that this specific part of the mural was selected for the hate vandalism. That said, the investigators involved in the case have released a statement saying that it seems to be an isolated incident and no one has been arrested yet.
