‘Black Lives Matter’ was painted on iconic rock. Then ‘White Power.’ This happened next
Outrage broke out on social media after drivers heading north on Interstate 5 reported seeing “White Power” painted on the rock near Bellingham that has for decades served as an unofficial community billboard.
Located about 4 miles south of the city, the boulder perched above I-5 has been painted and repainted over the years with messages of celebration, love and loss.
Also called “graffiti rock,” “the rock,” “Bellingham rock” and “Samish rock,” it had been painted with “Black Lives Matter” for at least a week, according to posts on the Bellingham Rock page on Facebook.
People reported on Twitter seeing the rock spray-painted with “White Power” early Thursday morning, June 11. That information also was posted on Britlist: Whatcom County as well as Reddit.
“Just drove past the painted Rock on my way to Bellingham. its been painted black lives matter today it says white power,” @DJSteele6 tweeted at 6:44 a.m. on Thursday.
Also early Thursday, @ellengland wrote on Twitter: “The big spray painted rock on I-5 on the way to Bellingham says ‘White Power’ this morning. We can’t give up after posting a black square or going to one rally. We need to keep donating, signing petitions, and protesting until real change happens. This will be a long fight.”
Angry and upset, people put out calls to paint over “White Power.”
“The big spray-painted rock on I-5 south of Bellingham says ‘white power’ this morning after reading ‘Black Lives Matter’ for the past few days. So if you’ve always wanted to spray paint that rock with a positive message, now’s the time,” read a Thursday post by a person with the screen name lilcheesecrisp on Reddit.
The Washington State Department of Transportation got to it first, according to information provided to The Bellingham Herald by Jordan Longacre, spokesman for its Northwest Region.
“The community alerted (Washington State Patrol) about the painting on the rock, and state patrol called our maintenance crew about it as it was becoming an issue. WSDOT responded and painted the rock,” Longacre said.
It looked as if rain may have made the WSDOT paint run, but others heeded the call and repainted it on Thursday with “#BLM” and “No Justice No Peace,” according to Reddit and Facebook posts.
Those words were still on there as of Friday morning, June 12.
Thousands of Whatcom County residents have rallied in Bellingham in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in recent days, with the largest on Saturday, June 6, where about 7,000 people gathered at Maritime Heritage Park.
