Fayetteville artist and sign painter Olivia Trimble learned from Facebook this morning that someone had painted an obscene and racist tag (see below) on a boarded up window of the vacant City Hospital south of the Fayetteville Public Library. Her solution: “I flew out, loaded my car and covered that up as fast as I could,” Trimble told the Times.

It was another instance of alt-right post-Trump-election racist speech — including confrontations at high schools targeting African Americans and Latinos — that has plagued Arkansas communities.

“I don’t want our our children to see that hate speech in our community,” Trimble said. “That’s not what we’re about, that’s not what America is about. With my skill set, it seemed like the best way” to respond.

LGBT rights are a target too: Melanie Hayes of Rogers returned to her car after a grocery shopping trip to find a note on her car’s back window next to her marriage equality sticker that said, “Your marriage is an “Obama-nation” This is Trump nation now! Time to straighten yourself out!”


Painter Trimble has posted on her Facebook page that she’ll cover up any Fayetteville hate messages she learns of “with a colorful, positive message within a couple of hours. … I am aware of legal ramifications and will cross that bridge if it comes to it.”

Trimble said the positive response to her action was “overwhelming,” and that she has created the Facebook page and hashtag Repaint Hate to encourage others to cover up such messages wherever they are.