SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – A pair of Sioux Falls business owners are concerned about racially-charged graffiti that was discovered behind their store.
On Wednesday night, as they made their way out of the building their business is in, Beth Shaw discovered the disturbing graffiti in a walkway.
Beth and her husband Jerry are a mixed-race couple who own a westside business together. They didn’t want to have their business name or location shared due to fear of retaliation or making a bad situation worse.
“This is pure anger and it was pure, it was violent. There’s no other way to say it,” Beth expressed.
It’s hard to tell if the vandalism was a targeted threat, but as a mixed-race couple and a black-owned business, it’s concerning either way.
“What was so shocking for me was the hate and the violence and the intent of harm to somebody because of the pigment of their skin. It’s scary. Somebody out there is thinking that way and feeling that way in this community,” Beth said.
With how much graffiti there was, it was hard to ignore. Between calls for the killing of black people, nazi symbolism and references to the Ku Klux Klan, Beth became deeply concerned and alerted security of her building and police.
“It was frustrating because, for me, that was a threat to people in my community and for most of my family,” Beth said.
“Seeing it, it was kind of a surprise to me because I’ve been in Sioux Falls quite a while and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Jerry said.
It was described as a surprise, but not a shock. Hateful messages are unfortunately not new and in this area, local NAACP chapter vice president Julian Beaudion said it’s becoming a trend.
“We have a history of having incidents of racism, of hatred, of discriminatory practices right in this community and then sweeping those things under the rug pretty quickly. Very close to this incident, there was an individual who went up to two young black women and told them that he was a member of the KKK and expected to kill black people in Sioux Falls. There were several instances that happened downtown on Phillips Avenue. One where there was a young lady working at a business and a white man walked in and told her that he will put a bullet in her head and everyone who was black just like her. In another incident, a man was following a young woman up and down Phillips Avenue to say that he was also a member of the KKK and that that organization plans to kill black people en masse in Sioux Falls. Those things we’ve given a pass to by just saying it was isolated incidents. At what point is enough enough? It’s right now for us,” Beaudion said.
They were also concerned with the response by Metro Communications and Sioux Falls police, who did not send an officer to the scene for a potential threat.
Open lines of communication between law enforcement and the NAACP cleared up a likely miscommunication that night.
“There was an error in processing to say that this incident should have been online. He understands that it shouldn’t have been. That has been immediately fixed and we have the utmost respect for Chief Thum to know that that has been fixed and it will not happen in our community again,” Beaudion expressed.
This has been ironed out with local officials and they hope to move forward, but not move past the situation. They feel that things need to change and Beth took inspiration from Martin Luther King, Jr. and one of her favorite quotes.
“‘I have a dream that my four children,’ –and I have four children. ‘Will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.’ And I’ve lived by this my whole life and I want our world, not just here, I want our world to live by this,” Beth explained.
“For me, being black is a challenge. It’s different. It’s like being black is just a crime of its own. As soon as people see you, they judge you just because of your skin complexion,” Jerry said.
To the Shaw family and the NAACP, moving forward includes engaging in conversation and making things right when incidents do occur.
“Disgust is the first feeling you get when you see those types of images, but quite honestly in this community, it’s unfortunate, but the truth is, the reality I’m not shocked,” Beaudion said.
Beaudion said that change comes with being intentional in what they do.
“We do so by intentionally engaging again, we do so by intentionally recruiting people to run for office so that they represent the people of color in this community, proper representation, but we also do so by putting pressure on the people that are already in office by saying they should not be relying on us to tell them what’s happening. They’re in the position for a reason and they have the responsibility to pay attention to the people in this community and what’s happening to us,” Beaudion said.
“What I hope comes from this is that our city is enlightened that these things are happening and we need to be aware and we need to have compassion and we just need a change in our mentality, our feelings, but that change has to come within that person. I can’t make people change. I just hope that we can find a way to help,” Beth said.
Sioux Falls police did their part to clear things up. Normally in instances of racial hate or bias, an officer is sent to investigate.
Public Information Officer Sam Clemens told Dakota News Now that in a miscommunication, the person who took the call didn’t recognize that it was something more than graffiti. They have since gone through their policies and nuances of the law.
“Since this call happened, police have worked with Metro Communications to go over established policy and make sure this doesn’t happen in the future. It’s important to recognize that the dispatchers are not police officers and they may not be aware of the nuisances that some laws have. They are very good at getting information from people who call for help, but sometimes things fall through. This is a good reminder for both agencies when racially charged graffiti happens, an officer will respond in person,” Clemens explained.
There have been no arrests made and there are currently no suspects.
Copyright 2025 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
This post was originally published on here
