Chicago police are now investigating after a small business in the Bridgeport neighborhood was tagged with racist graffiti this week.
The owner of Cook It Mama Café says she made the discovery Wednesday morning.
“It’s sad we’re facing racism in this time of the world,” said Sydney Blakely.
Blakely told NBC 5 she is at loss for words and couldn’t believe someone would target her café overnight near 31st and Wallace.
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“I just started noticing it all over and it’s spelled out BLDM which is the acronym for Black Lives Don’t Matter,” she said. “It was written all over the mural, written on all the windows in the front and the sides.”
The 25-year-old said the graffiti was spray painted all over her small business at least seven times.
“I had to walk around to see, maybe someone is just tagging everybody. No, you just tagged me,” she cried. “Why you tagged me? I’m not mean. I’m not mean to anybody. Why would you do this to me?”
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Blakely opened Cook It Mama Café last September and serves a wide variety of lunch menu items including her popular jerk chicken salad. She launched her small business after quitting her job with the Secretary of State's Office, and used her life savings to pursue her true passion.
“That’s not fair at all to wake up to your dreams and your hopes to be destroyed and crushed,” she said. “Because your Black, your race—that’s not fair. That’s not fair at all.”
The small business owner is now worried about her future in the neighborhood.
“I’m afraid to even be in here by myself because what if they come back,” she said.
Blakely filed a police report and said detectives are working to track down the person responsible.
“They’re going to look around to see if any city cameras are available if they do see someone on there,” she said. “They will charge it as a hate crime. They won’t do misdemeanor for vandalism because for you to write all those racial slurs not just one time, but repeatedly all over someone’s business.”
Ald. Nicole Lee represents the 11th ward, and said this behavior will not be tolerated in her community.
“This is not indicative of the ward that I know, the ward that we aspire to be,” she said. “We want to be a welcoming place to everybody.”
Lee said the Department of Streets and Sanitation came out Wednesday night to remove all the graffiti except on the murals since Blakely is still waiting to speak with the artist to see what can be restored.
“We’re going to be here to support Sydney,” said the alderwoman. “We’re going to be here to support small businesses we’re going to be here to support each other as a community.”
Last year Chicago police investigated 177 hate crime incidents in the city. Blakely is hoping police will bring the person in her case to justice.
“No one deserves that regardless of what race,” said Blakely. “No one deserves to be treated like that.”
Blakely hopes to reopen sometime next week once the graffiti is removed and the mural is repainted. She also started a GoFundMe page to buy surveillance cameras for her business.
