In today’s episode of Existing While Black, the San Francisco Police Department is investigating what it is now calling a hate crime against a Black man who reported finding on his doorstep a doll with a noose around its neck and a message that made it clear Black people were not welcome in the community.
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According to ABC 7, Terry Williams said that on April 26, he had taken his three Rottweilers out for a walk around 6 a.m. when his 82-year-old father discovered a clear plastic zip bag with words scrawled in black marker. In the bag, was the doll, according to Williams, but that wasn’t all. What Williams said his father found sounds like a slightly modernized version of what a Black family in the ’50s would have found after moving into a newly integrated neighborhood.
Williams told ABC;
“It has gangster, thug, and other negative stuff about Black people on there. A picture of me with a noose around the neck and a noose around the dog figurine,” he added about what was inside.
Also inside, this stuffed doll so graphic and laden with slurs, we couldn’t show any of it on television.
“Calling me monkey, go pick cotton…” rattles off Williams, who recalls such terrible slurs and sayings — he had to consult a family member asking about them.
A sheet of paper inside was also so laden with hateful speech, ABC7 News also had to blur it out.
“It says the 4th of July is for White people not for Black people, among other things,” Williams said.
Side Note: Frederick Douglas also once famously implied that the 4th of July was only for white people, but one can be certain that the iconic ex-slave-turned-abolitionist didn’t intend for that message to be weaponized by racists against Black people nearly 200 years later.
Williams reported what he and his father found to the police and the FBI, and has since obtained surveillance footage from neighbors of the person who left the package on his doorstep, according to Mission Local, which described the suspect as someone who “walked with a slight limp, and wore a hooded coat, wide-cuffed pants, and dark shoes with a small heel.” San Francisco police spokesperson Eve Laokwansathitaya said that no arrests have been made, but confirmed that the case is being “actively investigated as a hate crime.”
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page has been launched to help Williams and his family stay safe. The page—which states that the message in the hateful package also included words such as, “Go pick cotton blackie,” “We found you,” “Chicken a la Noose,” “Alligator bait baby,” and “Target on your back”—says the funds “will be used to install a great security system (with cameras), help Terry relocate for a week until the police know more, and help take some financial pressure off the family during a very difficult and scary time.”
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