Group says racist letters sent in Wauwatosa after yard signs misinterpreted

The Council on American Islamic Relations said the signs were misinterpreted as racist and led to letters being sent to those addresses.

WAUWATOSA - Some yard signs in Wauwatosa have neighbors doing a double-take, but it's letters showing up at some homes that have gotten the attention of at least one national organization.

This all started with yard signs placed at some homes around Wauwatosa. They have messages reading, "For sale unless politicians keep Wauwatosa safe."
The signs go on to say: "Paid for by Tosa taxpayers fed up with mayor and Common Council."

The Council on American Islamic Relations or "CAIR" issued a statement Wednesday, Sept. 2 saying those signs were misinterpreted as racist and led to letters being sent to those addresses.

The letters took a more direct and racist tone, reading, "Dear white Wauwatosa resident, thank you for purchasing and proudly displaying the sign. We whites must stand together. We must keep Wauwatosa free from blacks."

CAIR condemned the message, as did Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride.

Statement from CAIR:

“We condemn this racist letter that associates disorder in communities with Black residents. We must make it clear that this disturbing racist and white supremacist ideology is not welcome in Wisconsin or anywhere.”

Statement from Mayor McBride:

Anyone who believes that "Wauwatosa should be for whites only" should leave Wauwatosa now. Your statement is racist, immoral, unconstitutional, and un-American.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." -- Declaration of Independence, 1776

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." -- President Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863

"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, Black men as well as White men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream" speech, 1963