This brown paper bag was found in my front yard. It says “MB hates nigger.”

It has a swatstika written on the bag.
This is the world that we live in.
When I saw the bag laying on the ground, I just thought a piece of trash blew into my yard, but when the landscaper contacted me and sent the pictures my heart dropped.
For the last several months I’ve had this eerie feeling as if I was being watched or targeted. Last month the light was knocked off the lamp post in my yard. I didn’t think much of it but then I looked to the right and none of the lampstands were damaged, then I looked to the left and none of the other lampstands were damaged and I began to question if I was being targeted.
I installed cameras at the front and back of my home because I was uneasy.
Now, after seeing this message of hate directed at me – I feel vulnerable, isolated, targeted and unsafe in my home and my neighborhood and I’m questioning if I really belong in this community.
This is the effects of racism; it starts with the subtle small actions and gestures, unchecked it eats away at the very fiber of our neighborhoods and communities.

I am placing this image here for you, me and our community to really ponder and think about what type of community we want to be. When I shared this with some, their first response was that Northern Kentucky was known for having a large Klu Klux Klan presence.
Is that what we want to be known for today?
When you see this image does it spark something in you to want to change our community or will you forget it as soon as you flip the electronic page?
What is it going to take for us to accept our differences and realize those differences should be celebrated and appreciated?
How do we get back to the founding principles of “United We Stand, Divided We Fall.”
Today I don’t have answers, only questions. Questions that I hope we think about, and talk about with our families and communities. If we don’t, we will continue to be further divided and division as stated by our founding fathers leads to a fall.
Catrena Bowman has been executive director of the Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission since 2018 and has devoted her personal and professional live to advocacy for those in poverty, to racial justice, to helping families achieve self-sufficiency, and to equity and equality. She rallied her nonprofit colleagues around a “Advancing Equity” public advocacy program. She has earned accolades for her work — the NKyTribune NewsMaker Award, the YWCA Women of Achievement and Outstanding Women of NKY awards, among others. She serves on multiple prestigious community boards. As an independent small businesswoman, she owns Inspired Fashion, a boutique in Covington. She has reported this incident to the Covington police who are investigating. If anyone has any helpful information, contact the Covington Police Department.
There really are some good people in the area. It makes me so angry that anyone tries to represent our area in such a hateful way! Everyone must be treated with kindness!!!
This is totally unacceptable in this day and time. I am so sad for you and your family and will speak out whenever I can about this. I wish there was more I could do.
Hang in there Catrena.! I know you love your community and just want to feel at home. Because of you I spend so much time and dollars over the river. I don’t want you to have to leave your home.