'It's Okay To Be White' — Fliers On UC Davis Campus Stir Controversy
UC DAVIS (CBS13) — Concern and confusion are on the UC Davis campus after racially-charged fliers were found.
The fliers read "It's okay to be white."
They were posted anonymously on the UC Davis campus, and campuses across the country this week.
The fliers could be found all over the UC Davis Campus.
On sandwich boards, underneath bridges, and on garbage cans.
Senior Ales Lee says the signs went up on cultural safe-zones too.
"There was also one next to the Chicano Latino resource center as well so they've been posted everywhere," Lee said.
The "It's ok to be white" message has been met with uncertainty.
"Are you insinuating that people of color are saying it's bad to be white?" Lee said.
Lee is on the UC Davis black leadership council, which called a town hall meeting Friday to discuss the posters and racial tension on campus.
"Whoever is posting these photos I don't think they're realizing how triggering these posters are for people," Lee said.
It turns out the same message was posted on college campuses across the country this past week.
Besides UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, Concordia and Tulane were all targets.
The campaign appears to have started through a social media conversation intended to spark accusations of racism and embolden the white nationalist movement.
UC Davis Chancellor Gary May wrote an editorial in the California Aggie reading in part:
"UC Davis has been and should continue to be a focus for wide-open dialogue on an unlimited range of ideas, including those that many find disturbing. Anonymous fliers, however, are not dialogue."
"I just would like to know what is your purpose why are you posting these," Lee said.
The university took all the fliers down not because of their message — but because they were posted in places that violate campus policy.
In his op-ed, May called the posters vandalism.
A campus police spokesperson did not know whether an investigation was underway to determine who posted the messages.