The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a vandalism in South Riding that the Sheriff’s Office says involves hateful, racist rhetoric.
The busy South Riding shopping center was vandalized with graffiti on Friday. The graffiti included several racist words, LGBTQ slurs, antisemitic symbols, and more.
“We are better than this,” said Pamela Manuel. “This is not Loudoun. It’s not.”
“As a Jewish person I do find it incredibly offensive being thrown in my face in my community where I live,” said Todd Kaufman.
“My oldest is African American,” said Manual. “Being here 18 years, it felt safe, and this breaks the safe.”
“For me every time that I see the N word painted all over things, I will say it still shocks me every single time,” said Meredith Ray. “I’m very familiar with racism. I have had to deal with a lot of it in my life. But it doesn’t make it any less painful when you see it happening and continue to happen.”
Meredith Ray and her son Owen were among those who decided to act after the graffiti was on display for about two days.
“Owen is my oldest and he is also my most sensitive and most caring person that I probably know,” said Ray. “I live in South Riding. It’s a very diverse community. I think the vast majority of people that are here are horrified that this happened here. And it’s so visible in the community. We are not going to let it take over our community.”
Owen, nine-year-old William, and their friends picked up sidewalk chalk and the kids scratched out the hurtful words, slurs and symbols and turned them into something different.
“Over there, there was a hate symbol or something,” said William. “I did a giant box over it. And then I added flowers coming out of the box.”
“That’s what gives you hope -- these little kids who were drawing and making a bad situation a good situation,” said Manuel.
“Seeing the rainbow [mural], it gives me hope because it means those little kids who were doing all this, they are going to change it,” added Manuel. “They are going to change the world. I hope this generation is what does it because obviously we are not doing enough right now.”
On Sunday afternoon, a man volunteered his pressure washer and kids took turns cleaning up the graffiti.
“The next generation has shown they are not going to tolerate the hate,” said Kaufman.
“The current environment is very tense and that’s why we need to show up for people and show up for Black people, Jewish people, Gay people -- everyone that is dealing with this kind of hate right now,” said Ray. “We need to show up as a community and show each other love.”