On March 26, word spread that the Africatown Center for Education and Innovation had been the target of racist graffiti, burglaries and vandalism. Africatown organizers entered the facilities to find swastikas drawn walls accompanied by shocking graffiti, including “N****r babies/Vote Trump” and death threats to K. Wyking Garrett, the president of the board of directors.
Africatown was founded in 2013 “to address the growing educational crisis of African American students within the Seattle Public School District,” according to the website.
In addition to the hate speech plastered on the Center’s exterior walls, the perpetrators stole electronic equipment and destroyed the organization’s computer networks. As a result, Africatown was forced to temporarily shut down its Umoja Positive Education, Art, Culture & Enterprise (peace) Center’s Young Geniuses Academy, Afrikan Descent Youth Affairs (ADYA) Sankofa Tutoring and other student, women’s and immigrant support services.
Africatown convened a community meeting on March 27 to focus on restoration and rebuilding. “We are appealing to our community to help support our speedy recovery in time for spring programming including our spring break camps,” read a statement from the center.
More than 100 people from across the city attended the meeting, which took place at the organization’s headquarters in Columbia City, in an effort to organize support and donations to the Center. They are currently looking for monetary donations and volunteers to assist in a slew of necessary fixes, such as painting, security system installation and interior cleaning.
“What we are doing at this point is try to organize and maximize [community support] so it’s an efficient process, it’s a transparent process and it does what it is supposed to do: restoring our services, programing and site,” said Malakhi Kaine, one of the founding members of the Center. Beyond physical rebuilding, Kaine said they hope to use this momentum to attract additional support from the community and build up programming infrastructure.
“If you lived in a raggedy house and it caught fire, you wouldn’t build it back raggedy,” Kaine said. “We’re starting to reach out and realize some of the visions that we had when we started this organization, to be able to reach the amount of students we want to reach and do that competitively.”
In addition to community engagement, companies such as CenturyLink and Comcast have reached out to offer additional support.
The Center has not experienced anything like this before, Kaine said.
“I don’t understand it ... but things happen, and rebuilding is always a process of living,” he said. “It’s very painful for some people. There’s a level of disbelief, and once you gain acceptance of the facts and what’s going on there’s a betrayal aspect ... people are hurt, others are angry ... there’s been a lot of emotional responses.”
Mayor Ed Murray expressed his support via Twitter, saying “Seattle will not tolerate this kind of hate ... We are ready to support Africatown Center as they work to recover, and know they’ll be back stronger than ever.”
Seattle Police Department arrested and released a man suspected of the vandalism. The police had arrested the same suspect who had allegedly been involved with theft and an insufficient-funds check earlier in the week. While the suspect is no longer in custody, the investigation still remains active.
To assist in the rebuilding efforts, visit bit.ly/1Rn4Anv and keep up to date through the Center’s Facebook page “Africatown Innovation Center.”