The building housing a Black-led San Francisco youth nonprofit was defaced with racist graffiti, and a noose was left hanging on one of the doors, city officials said Friday.
Images posted to social media showed racist language spray-painted on the side of the turquoise building that houses Youth 1st. The nonprofit — which offers year-round tutoring in math, science, English, and other subjects — is based out of the Merced Heights Playground near Ingleside.
The San Francisco Police Department is investigating.
“We don’t want to let this divide us. We want to get to the bottom of this, but let’s build our community up,” Renard Monroe, executive director and founder of Youth 1st, said at a press conference. “I’m sad for these children that are going to have to hear about this. … It’s a teachable moment for all of us, but this isn’t something that we should be having to learn from or to be teaching in 2024.”
There have been other racist incidents reported in San Francisco in recent months. In May, a man reported that blackface dolls with nooses around their necks were left near his home, and in June, racist graffiti was painted next to the front doors of City Hall.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins called the graffiti at Youth 1st a hate crime and said her office will “do everything to hold the person or persons behind this accountable.”
“But I also stand before you as a Black woman and a woman raising two Black children in this city,” Jenkins said at the press conference. “That didn’t just happen against an organization and a man. It happened against our children, our babies.”
City officials said the vandalism occurred sometime Friday morning. SFPD said officers responded to the building around 8:20 a.m. and found both graffiti and “a rope resembling a possible noose.”
Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, who represents the area, said the epithets were targeted at Monroe.
“This appalling display of hate has no place in our community,” Safaí said in an email. “This incident is not just an attack on a building; it’s an attack on the values we uphold in San Francisco — diversity, inclusion, and respect for all.”
The supervisor said the racist graffiti appeared days after an encounter between Monroe and an unidentified woman at the Merced Heights Playground. He said the woman was walking her dog in the playground when Monroe asked her to move to a dog run nearby. The woman became hostile, called Monroe a “dirty N-word,” and said, “We shouldn’t have given you books,” adding, “I’m gonna make it my job to shut your organization,” Safaí told The Standard by phone.
On Wednesday, representatives from the California Department of Social Services showed up at the nonprofit to respond to an anonymous complaint that Youth 1st was operating without a license, according to city officials. Park rangers also responded Thursday to an anonymous noise complaint at the playground, which they determined was meritless, a spokesperson for the Recreation and Parks Department said.
Emily Davis, a spokesperson for San Francisco’s Department of Children, Youth, and their Families, which provides funding to Youth 1st, told The Standard the nonprofit is not subject to the licensing requirements for childcare facilities.
A spokesperson for the state’s Department of Social Services said the agency is investigating and declined to comment further.
Calling the vandalism a “cowardly act,” Monroe said it’s important to teach children to love their community.
“We don’t teach hate here, we teach love,” Monroe said. “We need to teach San Francisco to love.”