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Racist graffiti found in Marysville neighborhood

08:58 AM PDT on Monday, August 11, 2008

By BERNARD CHOI / KING 5 News

MARYSVILLE, Wash. - Carol Person and Randy Gourdine have carved out a pretty comfortable life in the Marysville area.

Video: Racist graffiti in Marysville neighborhood
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"The people in the neighborhood are great, they're friendly, nice," said Randy.

But the couple now feels uneasy, even a little scared, after someone sprayed racist graffiti on a fence at the entrance to their subdivision.

"I couldn't believe it. I had to stopped and slow the car down," said Randy.

The graffiti contained the n-word and "KKK," all in bold, black letters.

"The very essence of what that is represents malice. it's a demeaning, degrading statement, and it's unnecessary," said Carol.

While the intersection of 100th street and 56th Drive NE leads to a relatively diverse neighborhood, Carol and Randy say they've faced racism before.

"Sometimes when we're out together there's always somebody saying something, looking at us strange," said Randy.

"It does put pressure on you, you don't want to put yourself in the crosshair, so to speak," said Carol.

But the interracial couple says this weekend's graffiti is the most blatant example so far.

"I don't know anybody that would look at that and not look at it as anything but an implied threat," said Carol.

On Sunday afternoon, a City of Marysville crew came by and pressure washed the graffiti off the fence, but for some the writing is still on the wall.

"Because the threat is already there, it's part of our memory," said Carol.

Carol and Randy say they wanted to bring the incident to light so the community will confront the problem and prevent it from happening again.

"Part of me doesn't feel safe, not anymore, not like how it used to be," said Randy.

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