Students discouraged by BU’s response to Neo-Nazi posters on campus

The Neo-Nazi and anti-black posters which were put up across BU this weekend have prompted a multitude of responses not only from students but faculty and members of the community.

While BUPD is still investigating the incident to identify the individual or individuals responsible for the hateful messages and antisemitic symbols, students have took it upon themselves to gather together and speak out against racism.

“Students have been attacked continuously constantly based on their identities. Whether they are Jewish, students of color, or muslim this is just another reminder of the constant attacks,” said BU senior Marlo Kalb who organized the rally earlier today at Marsh Plaza to protest the flyers.

Photo courtesy of Marlo Kalb

As one of the first to become aware of the recent posters being put up around campus, Marlo told The Tab her initial reactions were fear and shock that something like this would happen on BU’s campus.

“At first I was scared, but then I realized this really isn’t an isolated incident,” she said.

Marlo has previously been involved with activism on campus and said this wasn’t the first time she felt racism and discrimination was rampant on campus, “whether it be from members inside of the BU community or outside of it.”

Several posters were spotted around popular areas on campus like outside of FitRec and Warren Towers.

Initially, freshman Dev Blair believed the posters were a joke but was shocked when she realized someone had covered campus because “the BU student body knows that hate just isn’t something [they’re] tolerant of.”

The posters were all signed by a group called Iron March, whose website has now become unavailable.  The site “encourages people to register so they [can] interact with, quote ‘fellow fascists’ by simply clicking on a swastika.”

“I went on the website and it read ‘We need to gas Jews.’ I thought back to the story of my Jewish family who are holocaust survivors. These stories have been passed down and it’s really scary that now they are resurfacing,” said Marlo Kalb.

The posters appeared to not only manifest in antisemitism but racism. One of them read: “Black Lives Don’t Matter.”

On Tuesday afternoon President Brown sent an email to the entire student body addressing the posters.

“I am heartsick that our community has to experience the hatefulness displayed by the individual or individuals who posted this material,” he wrote.

However, this response has not reassured students who still feel unsafe on campus. Many were disappointed with the email – though weren’t expecting much anyway.

“How do we let Nazi groups come and recruit on our campus? How does this happen?” said Marlo Kalb.

Communication Studies and International Relations major, Negin Taleb, also feels the administration presented them with little to no outrage, making her feel unsafe.

Members of the specific thread, “Atomwaffen Division” which is mentioned in one of the posters, were the ones who put flyers up around BU.

A supposed spokesperson for the thread took responsibility for the posters and claimed to Metro that the student who put them up was in fact a BU student.

As a Jewish student and former member of BU Hillel, Marlo addresses the unsettling feelings a lot of students have regarding Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday.

“It’s scary that I have to think about my safety,” Marlo Kalb told The Tab.

However, Jewish students aren’t the only ones who are affected. The presence of Neo-Nazi and anti-black posters has influenced all members of the BU community to speak out.

“When I see posters that say ‘Black lives don’t matter’ on my campus, I not only feel empathy for my black comrades, but I also feel frustrated that these groups are able to hide behind their posters and not take accountability for their actions,” said junior Negin Taleb.

Two commenters in the forum said they are interested in starting the New England chapter, which would explain the posters seen around Boston University’s campus.

One of the two users has identified themselves as “a Neuroscience student at a well known east-coast institution,” but nothing has been confirmed to suggest this is the student who put up the flyers.

@elenimitzali