‘Black ice matters’ text to New Mexico workers stirs ‘racial division,’ NAACP says

Employees working for a county in New Mexico called a text alert they received from a coworker “inappropriate, unprofessional and insensitive,” and the area’s NAACP chapter agrees, KRQE reported.

The headline on the text alert read “BLACK ICE MATTERS,” according to KRQE. Michael Hawkes, the Socorro County manager, explained the phrase was “accidentally” attached to the text after it was used in the subject line of an email about the winter weather conditions, KRQE reported.

Black ice is the covering of a roadway with thin, transparent ice and likely not visible to drivers, which creates dangerous driving conditions.

Hawkes told McClatchy News in an email that he is investigating the issue “and therefore cannot provide a comment.” He said he did not believe the employee who sent the text was trying to be derogatory, according to KRQE.

Dr. Harold Bailey, president of the Albuquerque NAACP chapter, told McClatchy News in a phone interview that the county’s “excuse” shows a “lack of leadership on their part and that they condone that conduct.”

“Initially I thought someone was making fun of the Black Lives Matter movement,” Bailey said. “It could be considered offensive to Black people and people in the movement. For someone to come up with that slogan and associate it with the weather conditions is very insensitive and causes racial division.”

Bailey was alerted about the text by KRQE. He says messages that make light of the BLM movement, including an instance in 2016 when an Albuquerque Italian restaurant used the phrase “Black Olives Matter” in an advertisement, inject “Jim Crow attitudes” into society.

“The Black Lives Matter movement is about bringing justice and equality to everyone,” Bailey told McClatchy.

Bailey said the employees should go through sensitivity training.

“It’s basic courtesy and respect,” Bailey said.

The Black Lives Matter movement, which began in 2013, was reignited after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody in May in Minnesota, after an officer knelt on his neck. Floyd’s death sparked protests against police brutality and racial injustices across the nation.

This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 6:12 PM with the headline "‘Black ice matters’ text to New Mexico workers stirs ‘racial division,’ NAACP says."