Photo by Adam Schwartz

Architect Adam Schwartz was walking to his Shaw apartment on Monday night when he saw the graffiti written on the sidewalk on the corner of 7th and O Street NW. In orange chalk, it said “Hitler was a hero.”

“It troubles me,” Schwartz says. “Given how toxic the campaign was and how it shook out, it just troubles me that hate speech has been normalized and people think it’s okay.”

It wasn’t the only graffiti he spotted on the corner. Earlier in the day, Schwartz says he saw “‘Bush Did 9/11’ written over and over again,” but he didn’t notice the Hitler-related writing until the evening. He did not contact the police.

As of noon today, the chalk message was no longer on the sidewalk. MPD has not yet responded to inquiries about if they have received any reports about the writing.

Schwartz says he’s lived in D.C. for 12 years and “only recently have I started seeing this stuff,” citing the anti-semitic graffiti that appeared at least five times on a busy Chinatown crosswalk over the summer. While police arrested the alleged culprit, the crosswalk was defaced with anti-Muslim slurs earlier this month.

This past weekend, the Union Station Metro platform was filled with flyers promoting a Holocaust-denying film. Last weekend, Neo-Nazis held a conference at the Ronald Reagan Building.

The list of racist incidents in the area since the election continues to grow.

“This sort of thing needs to be pointed out whenever it happens because it’s not normal and it’s not okay,” says Schwartz.