Mari Villaluna just started a petition to The San Francisco Board of Education to:

Paint Down Washington High School's Racist Mural!

Dear John,

I just started a petition titled "Paint Down George Washington High School's Racist Mural!"

In 1968, the San Francisco chapter of the Black Panther Party, along with George Washington High School’s Black Student Union, initiated the ‘Take It Down’ campaign to get the school’s racist “Life of Washington” mural permanently removed. The large-scale painting, which students walk past to get to class every day, depicts George Washington standing over the bodies of dead Indigenous people with enslaved, Black people working in fields in the background. After parents and students reignited the fight to have the mural permanently removed more than three years ago, the San Francisco school board finally voted to have it painted over and destroyed. Today, after a month of being pressured by white nationalist publications like Breitbart, who have bashed the decision using the same logic being used to preserve Confederate statues across the nation, the board is going back on its word and plans to submit a proposal to have the painting covered up by wooden panels that can easily and eventually be removed, instead.

White nationalists are pressuring the San Francisco School Board to save Washington High School's racist mural. Tell them they have a duty to stand up for what's right.

This isn’t right. The San Francisco Board of Education understands that it has a responsibility to ensure that “every student who attends SFUSD schools discover[s] his or her spark, along with a strong sense of self and purpose.” When they voted to paint over the mural, the board courageously listened to the voices of Black and Indigenous students who have long said that the mural’s glorification of slavery and genocide has had a deep impact on their sense of self and their ability to learn. Now, when the school board has the opportunity to fulfill its stated values of being “fearless,” “student-centered,” and a vessel for “social justice,” it is about to reverse the positive impact of its decision by moving forward with a temporary cover-up that can and will be reversed.

Will you sign the petition and forward this email to make sure your voice is heard? Add your name here.

For years, the students of Washington High School have used the phrase “the dead Indian” as shorthand for a meeting spot under the mural. For years, Black and Indigenous students have fought and organized to destroy a painful, daily reminder of the devastation so many of them and their families have suffered at the hands of slavery, genocide, and colonialism. School should be a place where students are challenged to learn about their history, but in a way that leaves them feeling confident about themselves and their ability to shape the future for the better. This mural normalizes the harmful logic that pervades so much of the world around Washington High School’s students: that Black and Indigenous people are subservient, inhuman, and less than. Let the San Francisco School Board know that they have a responsibility to honor their vote and follow the leadership of their Black and Indigenous students. Tell them to stand up for what’s right by agreeing to move forward with the permanent mural removal process today.

Black and Indigenous students don't deserve to walk past a mural that glorifies slavery and genocide. Sign now to show you stand with them.

Thank you,

Mari Villaluna