"My
family and I have been in Bowling Green for six years now, and the
community has embraced my family, made us feel welcome and comfortable.
I've lived a lot of places, and this has been a good place to live. As a
husband and a father, you're concerned about your family. For my wife
Yvette, my son Chauncey, my daughter Monica, my grandson Isaiah and my
nephew Jackson -- who is a sophomore at BG High School -- we've always
felt safe and comfortable.
"This one incident, by no means, represents our experience here. And
it's not an indictment on the community. Something like this could
happen anywhere in America. I believe it's an issue of the heart. And
only God can heal the heart -- not legislation or whatever. We trust in
God for our protection, and we pray for those who may have some
resentment towards me or our family or a race issue in general.
"We have enjoyed living here -- and we enjoy living here. The
community has reached out to me since all this has happened and offered
kindness and support -- and anger. No one has to really apologize for
the actions of whoever [did this]. I know people here are genuine, and
there's no anger towards anyone here in Bowling Green."
What do you mean when you say this is an "issue of the heart"?
"That's
what I have learned from my faith. The heart is the seat of our
emotions, and the Bible describes a man's heart as desperately wicked.'
I just think that when you deal with issues of race, they are
deep-rooted issues. And God has to transform that heart -- you have to
see things in a different way. I think this is an issue of the heart."
What was your reaction to finding the graffiti?
"Everyone
knows my wife is a big walker, and on Sunday she was going to go walk
before she went to church. I was home, getting ready to come to
practice, and she came back in [to the house] and said, 'Louis, there's
something written on our driveway.' She couldn't read the first part.
She wasn't frantic or anything like that. So I told her I would go take a
look. I think the first part was meant to be 'white' but it was W-H-T-E
in big letters, and below it in different color chalk was 'power' and a
swastika.
"I know there are racial tones to that, but I'm not exactly sure
what 'white power' means. I know they targeted our house because we are
black, and I don't know how many other black families there are [in our
neighborhood], so it wasn't by accident. I thought about it, and I
thought I should get the police involved. I went to the police station
... and they said they would send the police out. And they came out,
took photos and took a report."
Was this done because you are the basketball coach at BG?
"I
can't speak for whoever did this, but I don't think this was basketball
related. I don't look at it that way. I don't know why [it happened]. I
am black, and they knew I lived there, but I don't think this has
anything to do with basketball."
Click here to read the story in Tuesday's Blade about the incident.
Click here to read the story about a second incident of racist vandalism.
UPDATE: Four BG teens questioned in "prank" that led to graffiti. Click here to read the story.
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