“An elementary school in HCPSS had “Black Lives Matter” on their marquee and someone spray-painted over “Black” on Friday. This afternoon, HCPSS leadership (BoE and Superintendent) shared a press release denouncing it as a hate crime and standing in solidarity with BLM.
The story doesn’t end there. On the Facebook post from HCPSS sharing the press release, many people dismissed the vandalism and criticized the idea of the original message saying Black Lives Matter was a political statement and should not be shared by a school in the first place.
These incidents demonstrate that we are still not in agreement that Black Americans are disproportionately impacted by racism and discrimination in our country. Howard County residents who critique BLM or retort that “all lives matter” demonstrate how we still are not ready to acknowledge the problem many of us are striving to solve. This is a common narrative in Howard Co; refuse to see race or dismiss those who want to work on racism by denying its existence.”
