Racist posters were found taped around the University of Utah last week. The flyers were reportedly found in and around the George S. Eccles Student Life Center, as well as outside the J. Willard Marriott Library.
In a statement released Thursday, the U said by the time they found out about the posters they had already been removed.
The posters said, “Stop the rapes, stop the crime, stop the murders, stop the Blacks.” They also included unsubstantiated statistics about crime rates among African-Americans. The posters were downloaded from a website associated with the white nationalist group Vanguard America, classified by The Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.
“Although we encourage freedom of speech and critical conversations, the university does not tolerate hateful speech or discrimination against a part of our campus community,” the U said in a statement addressing the incident. “We reaffirm our commitment to fostering an environment where students, faculty and staff can exchange ideas respectfully.”
The U’s Office for Equity and Diversity took to Facebook to condemn the posters.
“We are outraged, we are saddened, by these overt expressions of hate,” the office wrote in the post.
Campus police documented the posters in a report, but weren’t available to comment. The Office of the Dean of Students, which handles discipline matters, wasn’t immediately available to comment on what repercussions, if any, a student who posted hateful flyers would face.
The U included resources for counseling and support services in their statement. Students can contact the counseling center at 801-581-6826, or the Office for Equity and Diversity at 801-581-7569.
“We can only pledge in the wake of such actions that we will continue with all passion, speed, and commitment to advance our work for social justice,” the Office for Equity and Diversity said. “We will not be deterred from bringing our collective energy to bear on creating access and offering support for underrepresented faculty, staff, and students at the U.”
Raegan • Feb 11, 2019 at 3:40 pm
This is outrageous because one they always putting us down and I am a eleven year old black young lady and you guys enslaved us we did not want to work for you so the fact that we still have to put up with this is just crazy because we made this state/country and this is how you treat us be in our shoes we worked so HARD and this is what we get in return so you should really think about this all the black people who read this you are amazing!!!!! And you should be told a lot we work so hard and one day we will get what we want and what we need
John Segado • Jun 22, 2019 at 9:59 am
The truth isn’t racist or outrageous. It’s history we need to be concerned with. Is that the truth? I think American educators ought to be put on the floor for not telling the “whole truth” about slavery, in which America’s role was absolutely minimal. Also, I would take issue with a lot of your statements which are far from true, also a problem with our anti-White educational system.