SAN JOSE – The white supremacist group that helped organize the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a woman was fatally struck by a neo-Nazi participant’s car has claimed responsibility for racist flyers put up at San Jose State University.
The American Identity Movement, formerly Identity Evropa, tweeted out photos it said were from San Jose, showing two posted flyers, one saying “Nationalism Not Globalism” and the other featuring an apocalypse scene and saying, “Diversity Destroys Nations.”
https://twitter.com/AIM_America/status/1162898834219032576?s=20
San Jose State officials said nine racist and anti-immigrant fliers were found posted throughout the university, after being put up in the early hours of Aug. 12.
“These items were removed immediately because they violated our time, place and manner regulations,” said SJSU President Dr. Mary A. Papazian in a blog post Tuesday.
Asked whether cameras may have caught video of whomever put up the flyers, the school’s chief diversity officer, Kathleen Wong, said university police were investigating.
The racist group posted the San Jose photos on Saturday, and on the same day tweeted a reference to “having a great time in Dallas.” On Wednesday, the group posted photos of its flyers up at locations it said were Cincinnati and the Nashville, Tennessee public library. In an online statement of its principles, the group rails against “the demonization of and discrimination against America’s white majority.”
San Jose State officials said they were aware of the flyers also being posted at Rice University in Houston, Yale University in Connecticut, Northern Kentucky University and the University of Southern Indiana.
Papazian warned that SJSU could see similar activity that is “inconsistent with our core values of diversity, inclusion, respect and understanding” as the academic year unfolds.
“And, while we will not suppress freedom of speech – to do so would negate those same core values and our mandates as a public institution of higher learning – we will continue to review and enforce all appropriate policies and procedures governing such activity on campus,” she said.
Papazian said the university is working to facilitate “respectful and meaningful” discussions about “challenging issues.”
“Even as we engage in dialogue and review our relevant policies and practices,” Papazian said, “San Jose State University also will denounce the actions of white supremacist and white nationalist hate groups. Our community will not tolerate bigotry, hatred, discrimination and other forms of social violence against individuals or groups on the basis of their race, ethnicity, immigrant status, religion or other identities.”
The Anti-Defamation League, a group opposing hate and anti-Semitism, said in a June statement that white supremacists “have been actively targeting U.S. college campuses since January 2016” in propaganda efforts. In the most recent school year, the league counted 313 cases of white supremacist propaganda on U.S. campuses – a 7 percent increase from the 292 it recorded the previous school year.
“The 2019 spring semester saw more extremist campus propaganda than any preceding semester,” according to the league.
