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A string of Black Lives Matter signs in Palo Alto have been vandalized, stolen or anonymously responded to with inflammatory letters since as far back as June.
After the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody on May 25, sparked a wave of racial reckoning across cities and jolted Black Lives Matter into a global movement, many community members like Sherry Listgarten placed lawn signs to signal their support for local Black residents and openly denounce systemic racism.
“I have a series of signs in my yard that says how it shouldn’t suck to be Black in America,” said Listgarten, a Green Meadow resident and author of the Palo Alto Weekly’s climate change blog, who wrote about the incident. “I feel very strongly about it.”
Around Sept. 4, one of those signs was stapled with an anonymously typed essay that included a drawing of a swastika and accused Black Lives Matter supporters of being Nazis. Listgarten rejected the idea that Black Lives Matter is a fascist movement. She is also Jewish.
“It doesn’t even make sense,” she said. “It’s just nonsensical.”
Some residents have received similar anonymous polemics, all titled in large block letters, “White Lives Matter,” and typed with a courier-like font. Others got a short diatribe, titled “Blue,” which accused people with Black Lives Matter signs of dishonoring the police. The font and language are similar to the former letter, in which both call supporters “all-think-alike(s).”
Palo Alto resident David, who received the “Blue” letter around Sept. 20 and asked not to be identified with his full name out of concern for his safety, said he was distressed but not surprised that this would happen in his community.
“There’s a long history of hate on the Peninsula,” he said, recalling an incident about 15 years ago, around the time he first moved to Palo Alto, when he saw a Black man being physically pushed out of the city limits by Palo Alto police.
A few residents have caught on video a man who appears to be either attempting to remove lawn signs or placing something on top of residents’ posters. It’s unclear if these incidents involve the same individual or if the person is a local resident based on the footage.
“The City is aware of video footage of a person who attempted to steal one sign and then stopped,” Meghan Horrigan-Taylor, Palo Alto’s chief communications officer, said in an email. “This individual was identified and interviewed by police, and there is no evidence that this person is connected to any of the other incidents.”
Horrigan-Taylor also confirmed that these incidents have “occurred sporadically over the last three months” and said the city takes “any issues of vandalism or damage to property seriously.”
The incidents sparked the familiar heated, online discourse about the legitimacy of Black Lives Matter movement, which grew out of an organization whose founders have called themselves “trained Marxists.”
But regardless of the origins of the Black Lives Matter organization, supporters of the movement say it has evolved.
“I think if you ask five people what Black Lives Matter means, you might get five different answers,” Listgarten said.
Advocates often find themselves clarifying what they mean when they say, “Black lives matter.” “Supporting (equality and fairness and racial justice) does not mean we are anti-police,” Pamela Harter, a Charleston Gardens resident wrote on Nextdoor. Meanwhile, denouncers of the movement often cite the riots and looting within the majority of peaceful protests. (According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, an organization that maps crises, most demonstrators related to Black Lives Matter did not engage “in violence or destructive activity.”)
Listgarten said she is open to civil discourse and hearing out the critics of the Black Lives Matter movement. The longtime Palo Alto resident said she understands there can be a messaging issue when some protesters might say, “Defund the police.”
But when symbols that have now come to be associated with hate like swastikas are thrown in, the room for debate closes, she said.
“I worry about how we’re talking to each other,” Listgarten said. “And whether or not we can learn to disagree productively.”
When asked how she might understand the anonymous actions of the perpetrator or perpetrators, Listgarten suggested it may be that conservatives, specifically in more liberal cities such as Palo Alto, feel isolated and fear backlash for having opposing views.
But David disagreed, saying that the people who hold opposing views to the Black Lives Matter movement “certainly can and do” speak out — sometimes in an attempt to “threaten and intimidate.”
Several sources, including David, reached out to this news organization about stolen signs or anonymous letters. Most, except for Listgarten, have asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
“If this is reported on, please have this submission be anonymous,” one tipster, who received a “White Lives Matter” letter, wrote, “because these kinds of people scare me.”
We know from the positive conservative response to Kyle Rittenhouse murdering two BLM protestors that the right has long given up wanting to engage in civil discourse. We SHOULD be scared of these people living among us.
Freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental American right. However, as the saying goes, your freedom to wave your fist ends before my nose. I am scared that people who claim BLM movement to be a Nazi movement live among us too. How can we have a civilized discussion, if one side just screams and spews hate? And after all of these hate actions – they actually claim victimhood for their opposing views are not popular in liberal places such as Palo Alto, so they are “afraid” to speak out. You know what is the scariest part? These same people are the ones to own a great number of guns. So, how can we have a conversation that leads somewhere productive?
If you openly support an organization that refers to themselves as “trained Marxist’s” openly engage in looting, rioting and burning down the country (at our expense), aggressively blocks the freeways, etc. backlash will happen. Sadly, too many naive people are hoodwinked, and don’t understand the BLM movement. I’ve read 2/3 of African Americans don’t support BLM. Equality – yes. A Marxist organization? No, thank you.
We live in a very divided nation. BLM, if you study the information on their website, which I believe has recently been removed, taken down or edited, is run by some very radical founders who also happen to be anti-police and who have encouraged violence. They are receiving millions of dollars in funding from far left organizations and donors. You have to wonder what the real agenda is.
There is no dialogue possible with people who will not even try to listen or understand an opposing point of view and the truth is
BLM has done nothing to improve the lives of Black Americans. I find it interesting that most of the violent rioters are not black, though there are some, and most of the rioters don’t live in the cities they are destroying.
There is nothing peaceful about what they are doing despite the claims by local government officials and the media. While the signs express a sincere sentiment, the organization does not.
In a democracy, we all have the right to make strong, non-violent civil arguments toward their case for any position. However, trespassing on private property in the dead of night to deface property is cowardly, illegal, childish.
This behavior speaks volumes about the character of the people doing it. If they believe in what they are saying without reservation or guilt, they wouldn’t be sneaking around. Their behavior says to me they feel ashamed.
People’s lives matter. Sadly, black people’s lives have not been valued and treated with the care they deserve. We can do better, and we should.
The above is not a BLM statement. It is my own view. I don’t believe in defunding police, but I do believe we need police reform. We give a lot of power to police. That power should be wielded with great responsibility. We have seen that existing systems have allowed abuse of that power, especially toward people of color. That needs to change.
Let’s not allow ourselves to be divided into ideological tribes on this. Racism is a complex and painful issue, and it requires nuanced, sensitive discussion and solutions.
@ We, the people… If you take an honest look at facts and reliable statistics, you will see that black people commit a disproportionate number of crimes based on their percentage of the population. This is not made up. It is fact. I agree that it requires discussion and solutions, but until blacks acknowledge these facts and stop crying that they are victims of racism it will never happen. Unfortunately this has become political and the liberal left and mainstream media support this false narrative. You can either accept responsibility for your own condition or blame your circumstances on someone else and there are many Black Americans who agree with what I just said. Unfortunately, when they speak out they are labeled as “not black, Uncle Tom’s and a number of other derogatory terms.” So we can do better, but it takes being honest.
I will just say wow.
If I didn’t feel strongly enough about protesting before…
It’s attitudes such as the one above “agree that it requires discussion and solutions, but until blacks acknowledge these facts and stop crying that they are victims of racism it will never happen” that people are in the streets protesting .
What will it take to get through?
@Maybe we can do it …. it will take honesty. What I stated was based on factual data and not emotion, something the political left and mainstream media continues to ignore. Another fact is that many more whites are killed by police officers annually than blacks, and some of those killings have been considered unjust or unwarranted, but we don’t see nationwide protests and riots for them and calls for eliminating or defunding the police. And when have you ever seen the family members of these victims interviewed and shown on every major news outlet across the country? Don’t their lives matter?
The BLM movement has not taken a position on or addressed the abhorrent numbers of black on black murders that happen in Chicago every weekend. Where are the protests? Is that not hypocritical? Don’t their lives matter? Perhaps their agenda is to further divide us as a nation. Given where they are getting most of their funding, it wouldn’t surprise me.
This is SOP for a good number of Palo Alto residents so color me unsurprised. The history of overt racism and hostility, especially toward Black people, was something my grandparents spoke about when they lived in Palo Alto decades ago, and I’ve watched it continue.