Apparently, it was a hard week for the worst kind of white people. Clearly they thought the trial of Derek Chauvin was going to end differently, because a mural of George Floyd in Houston was defaced with a racial slur.
According to NBC News, it was discovered on Thursday that someone spray painted the phrase “Nigger Lives Don’t Matter” on the mural. The incident happened only two days after Chauvin was found guilty on all three counts in the murder of George Floyd. Daniel Anguilu, the artist who painted the mural, restored the mural the same day it was discovered it had been vandalized.
“As a human, it’s just wrong to do something like that,” Anguilu told reporters.
While Floyd lived in Minneapolis, he was raised in Houston, and spent much of childhood in the Third Ward. The mural was painted last summer in downtown Houston shortly after the video of Chauvin killing Floyd went viral and spurred nationwide outrage.
“My intention with this mural and with a group of friends when we painted it was of support, first, but also to help our communities heal from some of the issues that we’re facing,” Anguilu told reporters. “So, it’s a reminder that we just have to keep working.”
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner also spoke to reporters and said that Houston police are currently canvassing the area for witnesses and reviewing surveillance footage to find whoever was responsible for the vandalism.
“Let me tell you something, and I want everybody to understand: Ignorant people with bad hearts and bad motivations — do not give them the power. Don’t give them the power,” Finner told reporters on Thursday. “We’re going to stand together. We’re going to uplift the good; push down the negative stuff, because we don’t have time for it.”
Considering the history of churches that have been burned, the murals that have been vandalized, and the gravestones that have been shot up all in the name of white supremacy, I really don’t want to hear another white person talk about property damage ever again.