Human Relations Commission Removes Racist Graffiti from Parking Ramp

A woman who discovered racial graffiti written on the wall of a parking garage is taking action.

After posting to social media about she received comments and suggestions from all of her Facebook friends about what to do.

“I didn’t want to report it to a person or to an institution that would treat it like a small time property crime,” said Amanda Lindseth. “I wanted to report it to someone who would treat it like a hate speech.”

The graffiti written on a stairwell wall of the Radisson Hotel parking garage read ‘kill all n—ers’.

Amanda says this was the first time she ever saw something like this in Fargo and it took her by surprise.

“It’s just heartbreaking to see that sort of sentiment being played out in our community…being written on walls,” she said.

“The City of Fargo is supposed to be a welcoming city and when you see that, you don’t feel too welcoming,” said City of Fargo Cultural Planner Willard YellowBird.

Amanda says she feels the same way and reported the message to the city’s Graffiti Hotline as well as the Human Relations Commission.

In less than 24 hours, the message was removed.

“I feel really positive about the fact that the Humans Relations Commission has taken this seriously,” said Amanda.

Although the graffiti was taken care of, Willard YellowBird says there needs to be a quicker response to hate-filled crimes.

“If you have a fast response and someone says ‘oh that’s not right’, then people say ‘oh maybe we better not do it’,” he said.

Both Amanda and Willard agree this was unacceptable and hope to only move forward from this.

“We’re going to stand up and say no, that’s not happening in our community,” said Willard.

The Human Relations Commission says this is an opportunity for all community members to make a call if they see any hateful crimes.