Overpass banner leads to upset, discussion
Sonora resident Linda Benson was driving her adult, partially Filipina daughter to work eastbound on the Highway 108 bypass behind the Crossroads Shopping Center on Wednesday morning when a hanging banner that read “No White Guilt!” came into view.
“We both saw it and screamed at the same time,” said Benson, 53. “I worry for my daughter that anyone would say something like that to her or do something to her because her skin is different.”
“White Guilt” is an academic and philosophical term used to define shame held by whites or Caucasians either as an individual or collective due to social, economic and institutional harm done to people of color, especially black people due to the history of the American trans-atlantic slave trade.
The sign was reported by multiple people to law enforcement and was eventually removed.
According to anecdotal reports from multiple Tuolumne County residents, the
sign was visible to members of the public at approximately just after 7 a.m. and remained up for hours until it was removed and an American flag was put in its place some time before noon.
John Latorre, of Sonora, said he saw it about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday on his way to work and assumed it “had something to do with white pride,” though he wasn’t sure of the actual meaning.
“I saw it and I thought it was unusual and a bit mystifying. I’m not clear on what message they’re trying to give,” said Latorre, who added he saw “a couple” removing the banner. “I was disappointed that someone went to all the trouble to put up a banner, the meaning of which was unclear.”
Kirstin Meyer, of Sonora, saw it Wednesday at 8 a.m. and said the banner “took her breath away,” so she turned her vehicle around back to the highway, pulled over and took a photo to post on social media.
“It’s definitely a racial slur,” said Meyer, who added she was not a person of color. “It’s just kind of backhandly trying to say white pride. It’s racism. It’s white supremacist to me.”
Meyer reported it to the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office and the Sonora Police Department. She said she was told by law enforcement officials that Caltrans workers were on their way to remove it.
At 10 a.m., she said she returned and saw the banner was gone. Later, she was contacted by someone who said the American flag was put there in its place.
“What is this supposed to say about us? It’s when you first drive into Sonora. Like, welcome to Tuolumne, this is how we feel?” Meyer said.
A Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher said they could not provide information to the press regarding any reports issued to the Sheriff’s Office, and official statements could only be made through the public information office.
Sheriff’s Deputy Niccoli Sandelin and Sgt. Robert Nikiforuk could not be reached for comment, and Sheriff’s Office dispatch logs were not available due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
A dispatcher at the Sonora Police Department said 911 law enforcement calls would be issued to California Highway Patrol and noted south of Old Wards Ferry Road past Lowe’s Home Improvement could be considered county jurisdiction.
There were no reports of the banner on Sonora Police Department logs.
Caltrans District 10 public information officer Warren Alford said banners are not allowed on overpasses because it is a traffic safety issue, though he did not know at this time if the “No White Guilt!” banner was removed by Caltrans crews. “We will remove any kind of political banner. It keeps us from having freedom of speech issues. Left, right or center, it’s just not allowed on an overpass.”
Alford said if it was removed by Caltrans, the banner would be held by them for up to 30 days if the owner wished to retrieve it.
Benson, a former resident of the Bay Area, said her daughter is 75% Irish and 25% Filipina, but the banner reminded them both of the occasional, covert prejudice she has experienced in Sonora because of her skin color.
“She already feels a little bit weird up here compared to where we’ve lived before,” Benson said. “I’m white, but I feel like I’m in the minority because I can’t believe that this stuff still exists up here.”
Benson and her daughter have lived in Sonora for the past year due to Benson having an ongoing medical issue, but she said she has come to the area since the 1960s because her grandparents lived here.
“We’ve come up here every weekend since I was a kid,” she said, noting she was adopted and her parents later moved into the house after her grandparents. “I believe that racism probably did exist, but that it was more in the closet.”
Seeing the banner reminded Benson of a time her grandmother used a racist slur for a black person while they were in a Woolworths in downtown Sonora, she said.
Benson said the banner seemed to be a reaction to the conversation about indigenous people, especially in Tuolumne County, annually around the time of the Thanksgiving holiday.
“It just seemed very wrong to me,” she said. “I’m glad it wasn’t accepted and it was taken down. I hope it’s the kind of thing I don’t continue to see around here because I don’t care how much it costs, I will move my daughter away.”
City officials contacted by The Union Democrat said they weren’t familiar with the banner, though the ongoing social equity committee tasked with tackling racism in the city did hear from Dore Bietz, planner and emergency manager for the Tuolumne Band of Me-wuk Indians during their meeting on Monday.
“What she wanted to talk about was land rights and just how the Me-wuk tribe cared for the land, cared for the water, cared for the forest and that they were really all over Tuolumne County and they were in the City of Sonora, they were here
for thousands of years, they were everywhere,” said City Councilwoman Colette Such, who is on the social equity committee. “She wanted us to keep in mind that this land is managed by someone else now.”
Such said, though she did not know about the banner, it was obvious tooled against the intentions of the committee to educate the public about racism in the community
“My feeling about that is it’s a misunderstanding about what we’re talking about,” Such said. “I don’t feel guilt, I just feel like we are all a product of how we were raised. We were raised as little kids to watch cowboys and Indians and hope the Indians die. I don’t think we need to be guilty, we just need to be conscious about being a Native American and what that must feel like.”
Darren Duez, a Tuolumne County business owner who is a member of the committee, described the banner as immature and lacking common sense.
“I’m saddened by the people who want to constantly cause controversy,” Duez said. “We should all be working together.”
The committee finalized a purpose statement on Monday.
The purpose statement reads, “The purpose of the Social Equity Committee is to formalize the City’s active commitment to belonging, fairness, justice, and equity for all; to listen to diverse and marginalized voices and provide a safe space for conversation, reflection, and understanding; to recognize and acknowledge implicit bias; to explore systems and identify areas of opportunity to ensure they work on behalf of the common good for all.”
The committee also decided they planned to hold Zoom workshops for the public with a professional facilitator, though the dates for the workshops are not yet finalized, Such said.