BAY CITY — Local NAACP leaders said they were shocked and dismayed by the racial slur that marred the first accumulating snow in Bay City.

A unknown person or group of people shoveled a racial slur into the snow at the top of the sledding hill at Vet's Park before daylight on Nov. 30. Bay City employees obscured the word shortly after it was first reported.

"Incidents like this are few and far in-between," said Darold Newton, spokesman for the Bay City chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "I was shocked that someone took the time to do it. It is really just a form of terrorism and intimidation that starts in K-12 as bullying."

The slur's appearance on the sledding hill, which is frequented by younger children, was troubling for Newton.

"We don't know who did it, what motivated them," he said. "That person obviously needs help, whether it be through some kind of classes on behavior and appreciating diversity or something else."

Herman Marshall, president of the Bay City NAACP, said the slur is evidence that there is still work that needs to be done to address racism.

"There are some things that people are dealing with that we can't see," he said. "You don't know what triggered this. The message here is that we need to learn to control our actions and exemplify more love."

Marshall said he believes racism will always be around to an extent.

"There is still some racial tension here and it's always going to be probably," he said. "It's more subtle (than the racial slur on the sledding hill), but some people are always going to have these feelings. It's regrettable."

Newton agreed racism is still "alive and well" in Bay City, but it is less prevalent and obvious now.

"The message that was sent was absolutely inappropriate, but we have learned to get along with each other much better than we used to," he said. "There is no reason for something like that to appear."

http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2011/12/ncaap_officials_react_to_racis.html