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Racist graffiti spurs construction stoppages at Ohio construction sites

In Brief

Racist graffiti spurs construction stoppages at Ohio construction sites

Photo of a construction site (Ricardo Gomez Angel/Via Unsplash)

Over the past several weeks, two construction sites operated by Turner Construction Company shut down in response to racist graffiti found on site.

As reported by WOSU, a Turner representative said that on Monday, August 3, graffiti was found on the construction site for Facebook’s data center campus in New Albany, Ohio. Turner reported the graffiti to the police and shut down the site temporarily.

The incident followed an earlier discovery of racist graffiti on the West End Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is also being built by Turner. The future home of the FC Cincinnati soccer team is being overseen by Kansas City-based Populous after MEIS Architects was removed from the chief architect role, in an earlier change that was unrelated to the racist incidents.

According to The Enquirer, after both graffiti discoveries, Turner shut down the sites and required that all on-site staff participate in anti-bias training before returning to work.

The graffiti incidents have not been isolated; earlier this summer, nooses were found hanging in several construction sites across the United States and Canada.

These events have happened during a summer when the architecture profession and the U.S., in general, have grappled with anti-Black racism, its prevalence, and how to remedy it.

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