jeudi 11 mai 2017
How 1 City Is Coming Together After the Nation's Only Anne Frank Memorial Was Defaced
Statistics show that incidents of hate crimes rose sharply across the United States in 2016, coinciding with a presidential campaign in which different races and religions were often pinpointed as sources of America's issues. But expressions of hate often spark a more ardent motivation to quell intolerant ideology. Such is the case at the Wassmuth Center For Human Rights in Boise, ID, where the city's Anne Frank Memorial was just defaced with offensive anti-Semitic graffiti.
On May 9, a custodian discovered hateful tags scrawled on the memorial and alerted the foundation's docent, who was scheduled to tour students that day. As the only Anne Frank Memorial in the United States - and one of the only monuments worldwide to fully display the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - the monument is a vital symbol of humanity, even when it seems lost.
POPSUGAR spoke with Dr. Dan Prinzing, the organization's executive director, about the incident. He says it serves as a reminder to continue fighting against bigotry and prejudice through education. The center has not released (nor does it plan on releasing) what the defacement said, because that's not really the point: what matters is how the community responds to this injustice.
"Our programming has always been about how do we recognize the spiral of injustice," Prinzing said. "Often that spiral begins with language, when words are used as weapons, when we begin to target and marginalize others in the community."
He says the community response has been "overwhelming," and that at least two state lawmakers were swift in their calls to the Wassmuth Center after the incident was reported. It's also worth noting that this incident was the first time hateful words or symbols had been directed at the memorial since it was first dedicated in 2002. "This is not us," Prinzing added. "Us is how we respond to this and that's what frames us as a community."
And the community has responded with more than just phone calls of support: Prinzing said at least two funding campaigns have been set up to cover the $20,000 required to replace marble, which cannot be repaired without damaging the memorial's engravings.
"Someone may have tried to deface [the memorial]," Prinzing said, "but they cannot destroy the meaning."
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