Photo: Kandra Coleman holds a sign out front of Rodda Hall North Tuesday after protests on campus erupted over hate graffiti. Jason Pierce | Co-Editor-in-chief | jpierce.express@gmail.com

Students show outrage over hateful graffiti on campus; Protest over school’s response
Outraged students protested Tuesday outside Rodda Hall North, the day after racist graffiti was reported in a first floor men’s restroom. Students held up signs while speaking about their concerns to college faculty and administrators.
Some students blocked the entrance to the restroom where, among other slurs, the hate speech said, “Enough is enough. Time 2 fight back.” Another piece of graffiti said, “Kill them all.”
City College President Michael Gutierrez sent an email to the college community Tuesday morning saying that hate speech targeting African-Americans and swastikas were found on the walls and mirror of the restroom.
“Several of our students saw this upsetting scene before we were notified and able to remove the slurs,” Gutierrez said in the email. “I want to thank the students who came forward to report this crime.”
He added, “I am deeply troubled that something like this would happen here, in a place where we should all feel safe. I want to be perfectly clear—hate has no home on our campus.”
Los Rios police responded to the incident Monday about 10:30 a.m., according to Kandra Coleman, student and president of Umoja Success Scholars.
“Yesterday morning I came to school after my first class around 10:30ish, I noticed that there was some officers standing in the hall,” said Coleman. “I asked some of the staff what was going on. They said ‘oh, well someone wrote some racist things and there was some swastikas’ they kind of downplayed it.”
Photos of the graffiti were posted to social media Monday evening and again Tuesday morning expressing frustration with the schools response.
City College Public Information Officer Kaitlyn MacGregor said that she and the president learned about the racist graffiti Tuesday morning.
“The president and I talked this morning and put together this letter so that students, faculty and staff would be aware of what had happened.”
The students at the protest were aware of the email the president sent out but feel like the school and the county have no sense of urgency when it comes to protecting black people according to Berry Accius, activist at Voice of the Youth
“This is a moment where the city of Sacramento should look that this racism has been spread like a disease and it’s everywhere,” said Accius “It’s just not in the local government, it’s not just in the police system, it’s not just in certain businesses and certain areas, it is infested in all of Sacramento County.”
MacGregor said that the protesting students made “good points… about communication because it took a little bit of a while for us to get our email out this morning.”
Some students are questioning why a rave alert was not sent along with the email from President Gutierrez.
“I feel like, as being one of the outspoken black students, I have to step up, because, this is unacceptable,” Coleman said. “If we wouldn’t have came out today, nothing would have happened. Absolutely nothing. Which is kind of scary when you’re trying to be an educated black person and you’re getting death threats that you don’t even know about.”
Students are worried that other situations like this are happening on campus and not being addressed properly or communicated in a timely and urgent manner according to Coleman. “How many times has this happened at this school that we haven’t heard about?” She said.
“The wakeup, I don’t think really happens until shit really hits the fan,” Accius agrees.
“Let’s say those people who put those nice racist messages in the bathroom, actually came and actually moved on those messages. What would’ve happened to Sacramento then? Could you imagine having those racist messages, no one talking about it because it was up on Saturday and then Monday being a clear out warzone of some racist person coming shooting up this school.”
Trayzell White, a business management major thinks that in the eyes of the citizens of Sacramento, the school is not safe, and that has been shown today.
“We might not show it because that’s how we are as people, we’re not going to show our fear and how fearful we are, but in all actuality, I’m black and I’m so scared I could cry right now,” said White. “I could of walked to the store and lost someone today, and that’s the problem, there is no sense of urgency when it comes to lives.”

Reporting: Jason Reed and Ben Irwin
Story: Jason Pierce and Vince Ybarra
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