Photo courtesy of Billy Park
“Hi there Billy, I am the one that took your sign,” began local student Zahra Ashe-Simmer’s open letter to a Northampton community Facebook page, where she sparked nearly one thousand comments about a controversial yard sign commissioned by Northampton resident Billy Park.
Park is a white resident of the affluent Crescent Street, Northampton neighborhood near Smith. A week earlier, he wrote on the same Facebook page that the sign had been stolen from his front yard. In Park’s Facebook post, we see the sign depicting a white man wearing a Donald Trump “Make America Great Again” hat hugging a faceless “Black Lives Matter” activist. He also advertises hundreds of copies of the sign that he intends to distribute.
The Trump supporter on the sign is in tears hugging the activist, an image that humanizes Trump’s platform of racism and white supremacy. The activist is turned away from the viewer, faceless and dehumanized.
Ashe-Simmer explains that she removed the sign to prevent the public display of this offensive sentiment. Northampton community members commented on Ashe-Simmer’s post, expressing four general viewpoints: first, that the minor property crime is far worse than the racist sign; second, that the sign is not racist because it presents a harmless, delusional fantasy where oppressor and oppressed can unite as humans; third, those who supported Ashe-Simmer’s intervention; and fourth, a series of personal attacks against her that ranged from sexist to threatening.
The second group tended to cite Park’s claim that the sign was designed by black artist Jamar Pierre, and therefore could not be racist. This prompted one Northampton resident to message the artist and reveal, via screenshots, that Park had commissioned the design to Pierre. As another resident noted in her compelling response, it appeared that Park had been tokenizing a Black voice to justify his ill-founded campaign for “unity.”
While many united in defense of Ashe-Simmer, a majority of other community members, and even local news outlets, chose to praise Park for his tone-deaf approach to unity during a historic moment for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The MAGA hat represents a platform built on racism and divisiveness. His ownership of the sign and property should not grant him the privilege to promote racism denial in the public sphere. Ashe-Simmer’s actions and the following controversy show how far from united we are. Ironically, displays of unity like the sign are used to hide this division.
The division represented by the four opposing viewpoints on Ashe-Simmer’s post reflects how white privilege – even in a liberal community like Northampton – rejects Black Lives Matter. Park’s stubborn display of his sign, and the support he received for it, is a testament of his privilege. The sign, as well as the community response to it, demonstrates an ongoing failure to recognize the legacy and damage of racism that makes MAGA possible and Black Lives Matter indispensable. These sides are not equal and they cannot be united while the oppressor maintains their position.
