Diversity display vandalized
“Innocent lives matter” index cards found posted in Davis Center
Courtesy/ Kate Vesely
February 16, 2018
Anonymously posted index cards were found on a display for students of color around 9 p.m. Thursday.
The index cards read “white privaleged and proud of it!” and “innocent lives matter not guilty ones.”
The display, which includes a Black Lives Matter poster, is maintained by the Mosaic Center for Student of Color, a University-run identity center .
Sophomore Kate Vesely found the signs and wrote about them in a Facebook post.
“To whoever put these up, why? The MCSC provides a space for students of color to feel safe, to feel welcomed and to feel valued. The MCSC is my home. Are you really so insecure that you feel the need to actively put down and invalidate the experiences of POC on campus?” Vesely wrote.
University Communications Director Enrique Corredera said that the University condemns any attempt to make students of color at UVM feel unwelcome, and that the University will continue to work to ensure that UVM is welcoming and safe for all members of the community.
“The two signs posted on the Mosaic Center for Students of Color display in the Davis Center appear intended to upset and disturb our community. They were placed in violation of the University’s posting policy and have been removed,” Corredera said.
These posters are one of a string of incidents involving similar postings around campus, such as the “it’s ok to be white” and “stop importing problems start exporting solutions” posters.
“This was not only a direct attack on our identity center, but to every student, staff, and faculty of color on campus,” said sophomore Harmony Edosomwan, president of the Black Student Union.
These incidents aren’t new and show that there is a culture of white supremacy is present on UVM’s campus, Edosomwan said.
“I believe this institution needs to work on destroying this white supremacist culture and ensure students, staff and faculty of color are safe on this campus,” she said.
Mystic Seer • Feb 20, 2018 at 8:03 pm
While I am fully against what happened you are also being prejudiced when you immediately assume a member of the working class did it and unleash a volly of slurs. This is exactly the sort of behavior that drove the white working class to vote for Trump act… So, Please don’t.
PassiveAggressive Man • Feb 18, 2018 at 7:37 am
“Privelaged”? The fact they misspelled their own racist comments should be telling what kind of idiot posts that garbage. Redneck, uneducated, white trash, etc…
Daniel • Feb 17, 2018 at 4:05 pm
I hope the protester has since learned the value of spellcheck or even maybe a dictionary!
That said, pointing out the irony of an entire sub-culture at the university that consists of anyone who IS NOT white while claiming this a racist act is well…ironic.
It seems that white students and staff are not safe as they are singled out for discriminatory treatment, to wit they are denied the right to acknowledge themselves publicly on campus.