Want to end racism? Why not start with putting it on a T-shirt.
Until 8 p.m. today, a pop-up booth will be in Farrguat Square where people can create T-shirts with customized messages. It’s part of USA Network’s Characters Unite campaign to bring awareness to hate and discrimination.
Passersby can stamp T-shirts that read “I won’t stand for…” with a number of words, including discrimination, intolerance, homophobia, racism, sexism and hate. Some individuals, including D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, told DCentric about what they chose to stand against. Is there anything you won’t stand for? Why?
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Mayor Vincent Gray linked his T-shirt message to the fight for D.C. statehood. The District doesn’t have a voting member in Congress. “We live with injustice every day in the District,” Mayor Gray said. “We live in a city where we can’t even approve our own budget with money we raised on our own. That, to me, is an injustice.”
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Rebecca McClay, 34 of D.C. said she wouldn’t stand for hate crimes against any variety. “It’s something that’s really appalling,” she said. “It seems to be in the news a lot lately and it seems to be very difficult to stop.”
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Charles King, 42, lives in Virginia. He said discrimination stood out to him. “I have dealt with it myself, my dad has, going back generations,” he said. “In this millennium, something like that shouldn’t exist.”
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Cary Hatch, 55, owns an advertising agency near Farragut Square and brought her employees to the booth. “Hate in any form really doesn’t fit in today’s society,” she said. “Whether I see discrimination or just people being marginalized, it’s all a form of hate.”
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Kennethia Simmons said she wouldn’t stand for violence. “People are getting killed every day over something dumb,” she said. The 20-year-old D.C. resident said her brother was killed last year.
