After finding a racial slur written in snow on the back of their car, a local family is left wondering whether London is the right place to raise their children.
London police say they’re investigating after Shyle Braithwaite reported discovering the insult yesterday afternoon. It was roughly 4:30 p.m. when he moved his car so his wife, Janice, could pick up their daughter from daycare.
“When she came home, she immediately came to the door and she’s like ‘did you see what was on your car?'”
When he went to go shovel the driveway of the Sunningdale-area home, Braithwaite said he was shocked to see the slur written plainly in the freshly fallen snow on his back window.
“Clearly someone knows that was my vehicle, and this was my house. And it was very much targeted towards us,” he explained.
After snapping some photos, Braithwaite brushed the insult away. But it’s not so easy to brush from his mind.
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“This is kind of the first real experience that we’ve had like this,” he explained. Three years ago, he and his wife moved to London.
“We had heard that London was a really good place to raise a family, so we figured we’d leave the larger hustle and bustle of the city of Toronto and move down here, settle down, and raise our family.”
But now, he isn’t so sure.
Neither of his kids saw the slur, and Braithwaite doesn’t plan on telling his eldest about it yet. But he’s not sure if it’s because she wasn’t ready to understand, or because he wasn’t ready to explain.
“I kinda just wanna keep her innocent for a little while longer,” he said.
The incident comes a week after St. Thomas police investigated an attack at the Elgin Mall parking lot as “racially motivated.”
A 52-year-old father was taken to hospital with a cracked rib and severe bruising after his family was approached by a man waving a baseball bat and hurling insults.
But after posting images of the racial slur on social media, Braithwaite said he’s seen an outpouring of love and support.
“I know there’s definitely love and compassion and all of that stuff out there.”
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