SPOKANE, Wash. — Monday marks 60 years since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C. Although it's been decades since the height of the Civil Rights movement, people of color in the greater Spokane area still face hateful rhetoric.
Adam Smith, the owner of SMASH Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Deer Park, spoke exclusively with KREM 2 News about the recent vandalization of his work bus. That same week, a racial slur was spray-painted on the pavement in Mission Park.
Both Smith and the Spokane National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) want the community to be vigilant in speaking out against racism and hate in the community.
Smith owns two Brazilian jiu-jitsu centers in Spokane County. He regularly uses a yellow school bus to transport his students to and from summer camp and after-school activities. Last Monday, Smith was driving into his Deer Park location when he noticed one of his buses was vandalized with racial slurs.
"It said the N-word {here} and then the N-word {there}," Smith said. "It's embarrassing."
Up the road from Deer Park, another piece of racist graffiti appeared at Mission Park in Spokane. A racial slur was spray-painted in bright orange paint on the running trail.
The Spokane NAACP is encouraging the community to speak out if they see something hateful.
"While they may not burn crosses in the grass of the 1960s, it comes out as spray painting vile words in parks and on buses," said Lisa Gardner, the Vice President of the Spokane NAACP. "It's a call to our community, to keep their eyes open to be aware that this does happen in our neighborhoods, that there are people amongst us that have that deep-rooted hate."
The Spokane County Sheriff's Office is currently investigating the Deer Park vandalism.
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