ROCHESTER — Sharmake Omar, the man who filmed the viral video of a woman using a racial slur at a local park, received a standing ovation as he walked onto the stage of the community town hall on Wednesday, May 7.
“Don’t let this die down and move on,” Omar told the crowd of more than 150 people. “We have got to make changes.”
The Rochester Branch of the NAACP collaborated with Barbershop Talk and Rochester Civic Theatre to host “Our Children Are Sacred - Accountability and Justice Townhall,” a community town hall held at the Rochester Civic Theatre addressing the viral video of a woman who used a racial slur at a local park.
The viral video, filmed on April 28 and posted two days later, depicted a woman being confronted at the Soldiers Field Park playground about her use of a racial slur directed toward a young child, who is Black. The woman, who is white, repeated the slur four times in the video.
The woman in the video identified herself as Shiloh Hendrix in a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for herself and her family to relocate. The campaign has raised more $740,000 as of Wednesday, May 7. The Rochester Branch of the NAACP created a GoFundMe campaign for the family of the child who the slurs were directed toward. The fundraiser was closed at the family’s request after raising $340,000. The money will be set up as a trust account for the child.
At the town hall, the Rochester NAACP executive committee members, elected officials and community members shared what social justice work still needs to be done.
The first step toward justice is seeing Hendrix be prosecuted by the city attorney, said Walé Elegbede, president of the Rochester Branch of the NAACP.
“While the child attacked is healing from trauma, she’s profiting off of hate,” Community Organizer with ISAIAH Minnesota Salah Mohamed said. “If we can’t protect a 5-year-old from racial violence, what kind of city are we living in?”
Barbershop and Social Services founder Andre Crockett moderated a discussion between the following six individuals:
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- Kim Norton, Rochester mayor.
- Jessica Phillips, Rochester Branch of the NAACP chair of Environment/Climate Justice Committee.
- Salah Mohamed, community organizer with ISAIAH Minnesota.
- Joel Franklin, first vice president of the St. Paul NAACP.
- Joseph Phillips, Rochester Branch of the NAACP chair of Legal Redress Committee.
- Walé Elegbede, president of the Rochester Branch of the NAACP.
Crockett asked the panelists about policy changes they’re looking to implement, whether Black children are protected in the community and if the community leaders understand the “complexity of racism faced” in Rochester.
Mohamed said the slogan “Not in our town” has been around since 1997.
“Twenty-eight years later, nothing has changed,” he said.
Throughout the town hall, previous high profile incidents of racism in Rochester were addressed.
In April 2024, four minors spelled out a racial slur using plastic cups on the pedestrian bridge over East Circle Drive. Though the incident was offensive, former Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem did not file charges because the word has protection under the First Amendment. Four months later in August, Rep. Kim Hicks, a first-term DFL member of the Minnesota House, found racist graffiti painted on her shed, a swastika on a window of her home, and paint over all but one of the surveillance cameras around her house.
“Hate crimes are rampant down here,” Franklin said, noting that Rochester or Olmsted County could use a Human Rights Department to help investigate and respond to racial incidents.
Norton said the county formerly had a human rights department that has since been disbanded. Now, the county has the Mobilizing Olmsted Voices for Equity (M.O.V.E.) community council aimed to foster connections and cultivate trust between the community and local government.
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For Elegbede, the city needs structural and substantive policy changes, and those living in Rochester need to continue educating themselves. It can start with learning how to file a complaint.
Elegbede said individuals impacted by a racist incident can begin by filing a complaint on the Rochester Branch of the NAACP’s website.
“In terms of the word, these are not just words,” Elegbede said. “These are words that people have been killed for, people have been lynched because of.”
The panelists urged community members to volunteer for the NAACP and bring policy ideas to their elected officials.
“To that young boy, you are not alone,” Mohamed said. “To Sharmake, you are not alone. To every parent, every elder, every Black and brown child in the city: You matter.”
The video’s impact on the child and the original post
Omar, the video’s original poster, told Wednesday’s crowd about the death threats he has received.
“It feels very bad,” Omar said, “knowing that I did the right thing and I’m being punished for it.”
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Now receiving mostly support on TikTok, Omar posted a series of videos thanking his TikTok viewers for their support after “swimming in a sea of hell and racism and threats.” Omar created a Spot Fund, a fundraising campaign, to give his family the chance to relocate.
During Wednesday’s town hall, Elegbede read a statement directly from the parents of the child at the park.
The statement called on the media, local authorities and the public to respect the family’s safety and privacy. The family is asking the public for financial support with unexpected legal, emotional and medical costs.
“We, as the parents of the young boy, we demand that those responsible for this tragic event, the unimaginable pain that has affected our beloved child, to be held fully accountable."
The Trust Project
