Letter to the Editor: Reader comments on article covering Morenci hate speech graffiti

Contributed Photo: This graffiti with a racial epithet was discovered on a street outside residences of people of color. The epithet in this picture has been redacted by the Gila Herald.

Dear Editor:

Hopefully, not only did you get to write about something so hateful. Hopefully, the coward who wrote this on my street in front of my neighbor’s house got in trouble for writing this ignorance in the middle of the street.

My neighbor’s kids are good kids who play in their yard and are really sweet and didn’t deserve this. Neither did my daughter, who stays at home and bothers no one. I can honestly tell you I am very angry and I don’t understand why people just can’t keep that kind of thinking in the past. And to think that this community is okay with people targeting others because of the way they look is cruel, evil, and hurtful.

MLK Day had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that people obviously feel like it’s okay in 2021 to still instill ignorance in the young minds of children. This kind of behavior is taught in the home. This is not okay and not just some story for a newspaper. This is something that most won’t even say anything about because it’s uncomfortable to them. How about how uncomfortable it is to the people it affects. True, everyone will not always like you, but people should have respect enough not to do such low-class things as this.

The parents or adults in this community need to take a look in the mirror and understand you are part of the problem. I have never and will never teach my kids or allow anyone to do things of this nature and not call them out. If you’re bold enough to spray it, be bold enough to face the person and be humble enough to apologize for such inhumane nasty behavior.  I wished I had been given the chance to voice my stance on this situation since it was indeed directed towards me as well. 

This is behavior that can bring problems in any community. So, whenever a conversation is welcomed, I’m open to putting it all on the table.

Tameka Alexander – Morenci