Posters On UMass Boston Campus Concern Students
BOSTON (CBS) - UMass Boston officials are telling students to be on alert after fliers were put up recently by a group they say is connected to white supremacy.
"Be careful and if you need to talk to somebody you know we are all here for you," said UMass Boston graduate student Bailey Zukovich.
Winston E. Langley, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs sent out an email to students and staff Wednesday detailing the incident.
"Intimidation of any member of our community is intimidation of all members. We stand in solidarity. If anyone sees or experiences harassment, please contact the campus police; students are encouraged to contact the Division of Student Affairs," said Langley.
The posters were taken down Tuesday, but were up long enough to offend students on campus.
"So I just like pulled it down and brought it to our graduate class so I wanted everyone to see what it looked like," said UMass Boston graduate student Cheyanne Garcia.
The group "Identity Evropa" is taking responsibility for putting posters up, that say things like "Let's Become Great Again" or "Protect Your Heritage," on the Dorchester campus and at other schools around the state and country.
"It has a picture of a Roman or a Greek statue. So it's not like there is a swastika so you have to look at what they are saying," UMass Boston graduate student Jenean McGee.
The group doesn't look at their message as hate speech and said in part:
"The goal behind the campaign raise awareness of our organization and issues. Many White people are tired of anti-White rhetoric, Leftist violence, Black Lives Matter, multiculturalism, etc," said Reinhard Wolff, Director of Administration, Identity Evropa.
"Obviously, I was very offended I don't want that thing happening at UMass at all. I want it to be a place where everyone can come," said Garcia.
"We're a public institution people should feel safe on our campus and not feel like they are getting hate speech," said McGee.
Identity Evropa said they're not concerned the posters were taken down and said they plan to put up more on campus.
