Marking yet another instance of chilling, overt racism on a college campus, students found a swastika painted on a building named for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., at the historically black Bowie State University.
A student posted a photo of the Thursday morning vandalism on Twitter.
BSU administration announced that Bowie State Police have removed the graffiti “appearing to be a swastika” from the Martin Luther King Jr. Communication Arts Center. The university also added that law enforcement is “investigating if it was a hate crime.”
Over 100 students protested on the BSU campus Thursday night.
“It’s not something that we take lightly. It’s a threat to the safety of our campus. And it’s something that we take very seriously,” BSU senior TeAna Brown told FOX 5.
The swastika follows a wave of racially-motivated vandalism and threats to black students at American colleges and universities.
Following the Monday resignation of University of Missouri system president Tim Wolfe and chancellor R. Bowen Loftin amid protests from the Concerned Student 1950 activist group and the Mizzou football team, there was still much work to be done. On Tuesday night black Mizzou students reported harassment and threats of racist violence emerged on the anonymous social media app YikYak on Tuesday night.
Police arrested two white students from separate schools who they believe issued those threats on the app.
Students at the historically black Howard University also received a similar threat on Wednesday night from somebody who identified as a disgruntled Mizzou student, the Washington Post reports.
The letter warned that they were going to shoot black people at Howard.
“Any n*ggers left at Howard University after 10 tomorrow will be the first to go,” the letter said. “After all, it’s not murder if they’re black.”
Friday morning, police arrested a suspect after issuing threats against black students at Michigan Tech via YikYak, Reuters reports. Much like the threats at Howard and Mizzou, the anonymous message said, "Gonna shoot all black people......."
Police have not yet released the name of the suspect.
But the fortitude of anti-racist campus protesters remains strong.
Claremont McKenna’s dean of students, Mary Spellman, resigned following protests that erupted over her email to a Latina student. Lisette Espinosa penned an op-ed in the school paper about her experience of marginalization as a student of color. Spellman responded to the op-ed with an email, "[W]e are working on how we can better serve students, especially those who don't fit our CMC mold." According to Southern California Public Radio, at least two students launched a hunger strike in response to the email, and protesters chanted “Break the mold.”
Students at Ithaca College are also calling for the resignation of the school’s president Tom Rochon over similar complaints of racial injustice on campus.
“We stand here in solidarity [with Mizzou, Yale, and all people of color],” one woman said into a megaphone, according to an Ithaca Journal report. “[H]ow can a campus dedicated to preparing us for the real world not actively foster growth to our consciousness of oppression and privilege?”
UPDATED 11:50 a.m ET: The latest version of this story includes information about the arrest of a suspect who allegedly threatened Michigan Tech students.
