Posters with the logo or name of a white supremacist group were found on campus Wednesday night around 10 p.m. The posters were reported to Director of Public Safety Edward Callahan, who related the incident to the Brandeis community in an email Thursday afternoon.
An image of one of the posters was obtained by The Brandeis Hoot. It read, “Keep America American.” It continued, “Report any and all illegal aliens. They are criminals.” It contained the image of a red and blue eagle holding arrows in both of its talons, under a semi-circle of stars.
The posters violated posting policies and was removed, according to Callahan’s email, which did not list the white supremacist organization or the content of the posters. The email stated that the Office of Public safety would be on higher alert.
“Given the nature of the group associated with the posters, my officers will be on heightened alert,” it read. “Anyone with concerns should call Public Safety at 781-736-3333.”
The email also stated that “such postering by outside groups looking to provoke is not uncommon on college campuses.”
White supremacists’ use of campus propaganda is increasing, according to a New York Times report in June. The article cited a similar poster from the Patriot Front, a Texas-based white supremacist, neo-Nazi, neo-fascist group. The poster read, “Keep America American,” “Report any and all illegal aliens” and “They are not immigrants they are criminals.”
The Times article cited the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish non-government organization combating anti-semitism in the United States, which recorded 478 instances of white supremacist propaganda at universities and colleges in the U.S.
The image obtained by The Hoot was similar to posters from other white supremacist organizations, including Vanguard America, a white supremacist, neo-Nazi, neo-fascist organization, which was once a part of the Patriot Front.
Brandeis has encountered white supremacy in the past. Swastikas were drawn on two whiteboards outside students’ rooms in September 2017, according to an earlier Hoot article. In 2015, a swastika was drawn in condensation on a window of the Brandeis Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house. In November 2016, a driver shouted anti-semitic slurs at Brandeis students on South Street.
