Black Students Involved in Racist Drawing at University
Although the students weren’t identified, the discovery changes the dynamic of student protests alleging campus racism.
A Twitter post of the drawing went viral and sparked outrage among minority groups on campus.
Administrators at a Maryland university confirmed April 26 that the people responsible for the drawing of a lynching in the school library were black students.
Salisbury University spokesman Richard Culver announced in an email that black students were behind the white board drawing, which showed a stick figure being hung, a racial slur and the hashtag #whitepower.
The image, discovered April 10, created a controversy and led student groups on campus to call for better education on race and more diversity on campus, according to huffingtonpost.co.uk.
“The current environment on campus takes a huge toll on the psyche of students of color affected by the subconscious oppression,” an open letter from students read after the image went viral online.
A two-week internal investigation by the Salisbury University Police Department helped find the culprits, who the school will not identify, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
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University police, along with the Wicomico County State’s Attorney’s Office, decided not to press any criminal charges, but the university is reviewing the incident for possible student conduct violations.
“Regardless of who created the drawing, we find such actions demeaning to all members of the campus community and against our core values,” Dane Foust, vice president of Student Affairs, said in a statement provided by Culver.
Around a quarter of the 8,770 students enrolled at Salisbury were minorities as of the fall of 2014.
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