Mysterious posters bearing symbols associated with white supremacy were spotted around campus earlier this month, only to be torn down and replaced by anti-fascism flyers reading “Good Night White Pride.”
The newly formed UT organization Revolutionary Student Front claimed responsibility for the anti-fascism posters.
A founder of RSF, who declined to be identified, said the white supremacy posters seemed to be in solidarity with a national organization which has posted similar propaganda on college campuses across the country, including Ohio State University, University of Washington, University of California Los Angeles and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
According to RSF’s Facebook page, the white supremacy posters were designed in such a way that only other white supremacists would recognize the organization’s symbol — a Roman statue — and realize there is a movement to unite. The imagery was accompanied by vague phrases such as “Our Destiny is Ours” and “Serve Your People.”
In addition to the white supremacy posters, RSF found a Celtic cross, a symbol sometimes associated with white supremacy, tagged on a pillar outside the Blanton Museum of Art. RSF said it is not clear whether the graffiti was committed by the same group responsible for the posters, but it was discovered around the same time.
Approximately 30 concerned students met with RSF on Thursday night to come up with a plan to take action against white supremacists. Comments were made in a town hall fashion, and students responded to each other’s suggestions. At the end of the meeting, they listed concrete ways to respond to racist propaganda. The list included learning self-defense mechanisms, photographing the fascists and reaching out to other campus organizations.
Eric Rodriguez, a Latin American studies freshman, attended the meeting with his young son.
“One of the reasons is the person I’m with right now, he’s in my hands, my son,” Rodriguez said. “White supremacy affects not just people of color but white folks as well. It’s been used as a way to divide and conquer the working class.”
Economics junior Joy Youwakim, who was not at the meeting, said the posters underscore the uneasiness she feels when walking around campus as a minority student.
“I like to think that everyone, especially at university, should feel safe all the time, going to class or walking around,” Youwakim said. “You shouldn’t feel like someone’s watching you and thinking, ‘Your skin color is not white enough for me.’ What is that?”
