San Francisco Youth Center Faces Death Threats After White Woman Vows to Shut It Down

Just days after a San Francisco nonprofit dedicated to at-risk youth's building was plastered with racist graffiti, the Youth 1st director reports being on the receiving end of a string of death threats.

The leader of a San Francisco youth center dedicated to serving at-risk youth is now receiving death threats after being the subject of reported racially driven attacks.

Nonprofit Youth 1st remains committed to providing at-risk youth with additional resources to thrive in their educational journeys. However, the nonprofit’s director, Renard Monroe, said there has been a string of death threats just days after racist graffiti was plastered on the center’s building, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Since its opened 24 years ago, Monroe said this is the first time that the nonprofit has been on the opposing end of what he is calling straight-up harassment. He said the center “will continue to bring the love despite it all.”

Just days after an encounter on a nearby playground where Monroe, a Black man, asked a white woman to walk her dog within the appointed area of the park, the same racial comments that she shouted at him were the exact comments that were spray painted on the building that is home to the San Francisco youth center.

“She said that he was ‘a dirty N-word,’” District 11 Supervisor Asha Safaì reported shortly after the incident. Monroe also said the woman told him,, “We never should have given your people books,” and vowed to dedicate herself to “shutting you guys down.”

In addition to the racist graffiti found on the nonprofit’s building, a noose was also found hanging from the organization’s yellow door, according to Safaì.

“San Francisco has to recognize how much work it still needs to do,” said District Attorney Brooke Jenkins during an Aug. 30 press conference, where she also deemed the graffiti a hate crime. “We must come together and march through the streets against something like that; that didn’t just happen against an organization and a man—that happened against our children.”

After the reported racially charged incident, which included the vandalization of the Youth 1st building, Monroe revealed to KRON 4 that an anonymous tip to the State of California Social Services led to an investigation, alleging the program was “operating a childcare, daycare without a license.”

Despite a city official confirming that the program is funded by San Francisco City & County’s Department of Children, Youth & Their Families (DCYF), and Monroe providing state officials with all necessary paperwork, the Department of Social Services insists it “still needs to go through all the necessary channels,” followed by a standard follow-up visit.

According to the organization’s website, Youth 1st was founded in 1999 and operates out of Merced Heights Playground. It is defined as a comprehensive year-round academic enrichment program that serves at-risk youth and all youth between the ages of 5 and 15.