DRAPER — The CEO and founder of Utah-based business analytics platform Domo spoke out Saturday after the company’s Black Lives Matter billboard in Draper was defaced.
Photos of the billboard taken on Saturday morning showed the phrase “ALL LIFE MATTER” spray-painted underneath the words “#BlackLivesMatter.” The billboard originally went up the week of June 19.
Domo officials don’t know exactly when the vandalism occurred.
“We created these billboards to show our support for our Black employees and Black community members. After the recent series of turbulent events, we asked them what we could do, and they told us that declaration and action would be most meaningful. The billboards were our message that we hear their voices, we are their allies and we see them as equal human beings,” CEO Josh James said in a statement.
“We’ve received numerous messages of gratitude from employees and community members on what the message means to them. And of course, we’ve received a few from people who interpreted the message differently — and that’s OK, because it started a conversation,” he said.
The vandalism “reinforces the dramatic lengths that some people will go to NOT have a conversation. And it shows the amount of work we have to do as people to create a culture and community of understanding and empathy,” James said.
The company will restore the billboard and leave it up through mid-July as originally planned. A Domo spokeswoman said the company does not yet have plans to report the vandalism to police.