Community Fights Racism with Love

When vandals plastered racial slurs all over a Washington family's house, their neighbors stepped up to fight hatred with love.

When the Philips family went away for a camping vacation this weekend, they never thought vandals would spray-paint their homes with racial slurs like "KKK" and the "N" word.

However, they never laid an eye on the racial slurs painted all over their home. That is because their neighbors stepped in and scrubbed off all the offensive language before the Philips' returned from their trip.

"It made me want to cry when I saw it," one neighbor told King 5 News. "It was terrible."

The neighbors were disgusted by the racial attack against the Phillips' family and decided to step in. Dozens of families came together with with paint and cleaning supplies to erase the hateful slurs from their home.

"Our biggest concern was getting this done before the family came home because they have small children and we didn't want them to see their truck or their home vandalized," one neighbor said.

The town's on-duty police officer was so moved by these neighbor's act of love, he could not help but step in and erase the racist messages, too.

"I'm here to protect and serve," the officer said. "It aggravates me when this happens. I'm here to make it right."

The neighbors spent the entire morning wiping the vandalism off. They were almost done when the Phillips family pulled up in their car after a weekend of camping.

They were overwhelmed by their neighbor's love.

"I'm overwhelmed and I'm shocked," Marvin Phillips said. "When I heard what happened, I was hurt. I don't know who did this. I was more concerned about the kids."

So far, no one has been arrested for the racial attack, but the Philips are happy they can rely on their neighbors to fight racism with love.