"I rounded the corner and I was in complete shock. I was devastated," said Raven White, the owner of Brown Sugar Café and Books.
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White believes the hateful and racist words were spray-painted all over the back of the building between late last Friday night and Saturday morning.
"It wasn't even your normal racial hate. It was deep racial hate," said White.
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The hurtful words have been painted over now. White said it was thousands of dollars worth of damage, but she decided not to file a police report.
"With someone leaving (sprayed on the wall) a student's name from Thornton Middle School that is right directly behind us, like we can throw a rock and hit the school, we figured that maybe the person is connected to the school," said White.
She does not know for certain it was a student at the nearby school, however, she said she had a nice conversation with the principal and instead of trying to punish the culprit, she hopes to help.
"We agreed there are other things that we could do collectively as a community, with the middle school and the book store, that would just incite change," said White.
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Once the bookstore is up and running in February, White said there will be programming to help people of all ages understand how to be inclusive and respectful of other cultures.
"It actually is a hate crime that could have potentially come from a child. We need to have people in place to help our children and the community feel different than what they expressed on our back wall," White said.
While this is not the way she imagined her small business journey starting, she said she feels more confident than ever in her mission.
"It's confirming that the programs that we have in place and being right here in this community, we are at the right place at the right time," said White.
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