Jul 09, 2020 11:19 PM
JOSHUA TREE — Business owners of downtown Joshua Tree arrived at their shops Thursday morning to find KKK literature on their doors. On one end of the strip where the papers were left, unknown suspects painted cross-like symbols and the word “hate” on a Black Lives Matter sign.
Marylee McIntyre, the owner of Boo’s Organic Oven, was one of the business owners who had the literature posted on her door on Thursday morning. McIntyre was in her bakery around 4 to 4:30 a.m. when she noticed people outside of her business.
“Of course, I didn’t realize what they were doing,” she said. “I thought they were casing the joint looking for someone to rob.”
McIntyre said they were wearing running lights. At the time, she saw two people, though it is unclear how many were involved.
McIntyre did not realize what they had done until later in the morning, after sunrise, when she went outside to open her business. She found the literature and reported what she had seen to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
“It’s upsetting that we have this kind of racism here but honestly I’m not surprised and neither are my employees of color,” she said. “I called (the Sheriff’s Department) first thing this morning because we had racist incidents in the past when we first opened and I want everything to be on record.”
Through the day McIntyre spoke to her neighboring businesses and found that they had all had the hateful literature posted on their doors. Down the road, a Black Lives Matter sign at the Beatnik Lounge was vandalized.
Beatnik owner Teddy Quinn coordinated with the Democrats of the Morongo Basin to post the sign.
Paula Durrant, with the Democrats of the Morongo Basin, said the sign was placed on Monday, July 6. The club was inspired to make a public sign in support of Black Lives Matter following the killing of George Floyd and was approached by Quinn, who allowed them to use one side of a large, permanent sign that he has in front of to his business.
“Truthfully, I was shocked that the sign got vandalized because if you don’t agree with it you just don’t have to look at it,” Durrant said.
Quinn said he was happy to accommodate the sign, saying he feels the United States is experiencing a historic moment.
“I think people are realizing the inequity that was the foundation of everything in this country still hasn’t been dealt with and addressed. I think more white people are recognizing that,” Quinn said.
“I feel that that’s the important message of this moment.”
He acknowledged that many people respond to the declaration that Black lives matter with, “All lives matter.”
“Of course all lives matter but you have to be able to say that Black lives matter or all lives don’t really matter,” Quinn said.
“‘All lives matter’ is glossing over something that really needs to be addressed. The moment here is to notice that Black lives matter and there’s been a history (of inequality) that continues today. When you see the kind of footage like we saw with George Floyd, it brings it home that that sort of thing has been going on.”
Quinn was driving to get his dad’s car smogged for him when he saw the vandalism.
“I was sad because it just went up a couple days ago and I really like it,” he said. “It’s large, bold, black letters that say ‘Black Lives Matter’ and nothing else. I thought it was beautiful.”
With the vandalism, he thinks the sign has become even more of a symbol of this point in time.
“In a way it really does reflect the moment in a deeper way than the sign itself did alone, and makes obvious how necessary that statement, Black lives matter, is,” he said. “It kind of drives it home.”
It’s interesting to Quinn that he is preparing for an art exhibit at the Beatnik around the theme of Rorschach tests — the ink blots that psychologists use to plumb people’s deeper thoughts and desires.
“It became a little Rorschach test having that sign up there,” he said.
Durrant said the vandalism highlighted that racism is prevalent in the Morongo Basin and more needs to be done to address it locally.
“The whole country is having this trouble,” she said. “It’s not unique to the Morongo Basin but here we are in the Morongo Basin so we’re addressing it here.”
