A child dominated an Oregon council meeting this week when he schooled attendees about the harsh realities of racism after a dead raccoon was dropped at the doorstep of the city’s mayor.
On June 5, Redmond Mayor Ed Fitch, who is white, discovered a harrowing note taped over the corpse of a dead raccoon at the front door of his law office. Fitch did not disclose the full content of the letter, but he told The Washington Post that it contained “intimidating” language concerning him and Redmond’s first and only Black city councilperson, Clifford Evelyn.
“It looked like the raccoon had bled out, right there,” Fitch previously told the Post.
According to the newspaper, Evelyn recognized the dead raccoon for its racial implications.
City council members addressed the incident at Tuesday’s meeting, according to local outlet KTVZ Bend.
In a prepared statement, Evelyn said the “cowardly act” was “something out of the 1950s and ‘60s.”
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“For those who do not support teaching accurate—and sometimes uncomfortable—American history in our schools, this is why it’s important to do so. Apparently, history repeats itself,” he said.
He said the act represented a “pattern of behavior with specific individuals” in the community, and he claimed racial incidents began to increase once he took office.
“Dog whistles and gestures will not deter me from my duties as city council,” he said.
After Evelyn thanked citizens for their support, other members of the community took to the dais. However, it was 10-year-old Gavin who shook the room into unprecedented applause.
“Why should us Black people suffer from racism when there are other races doing murders and [robberies] when us Black people are showing respect and [are] kind, but we still get treated like crap,” he said. “We should not have to get treated like this.”
Gavin, who is in the fourth grade, detailed his traumatizing racial experiences in school. He said he has repeatedly been called racial slurs and equated to a monkey, a racist caricature of Black people.
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“One girl said to me, ‘I would hit you, but that’s called animal abuse,’” Gavin claimed.
“We should not get treated like this,” he added. “We should get treated equally. This is not fair to us Black people.”
Redmond police said the incident is being investigated as a potential bias crime in the second degree.
“The Redmond Police Department has no tolerance for hate speech of any kind, against any person or group,” Police Chief Devin Lewis said in the statement.
“We will work swiftly to resolve this case and seek to hold those who did this to our community responsible.”
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