Posters reading “It’s okay to be white” have been spotted on university campuses across Canada and the United States, apparently based on instructions from a post on the anonymous online forum 4Chan.Since Halloween, posters have been seen at the University of Toronto’s St. George Campus, the University of Alberta outside its Native Studies building, and the University of Saskatoon. In the U.S., they’ve been spotted in Boston, Cleveland, and Silver Spring, Maryland.On Thursday, posters saying “(((Those))) who hate us will not replace us,” along with links to white supremacist websites were also being circulated at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, echoing the chant “Jews will not replace us” heard in Charlottesville this summer. Neo-nazis use triple parenthesis to identify Jewish people online.“Defend Canadian heritage,” said the posters. “Fight back against anti-white hatred.”At the University of Toronto, there have been reports of razor blades being attached to the backs of the signs, although the administration told VICE News that campus police and Toronto police have been investigating, and haven’t found them.“As a general rule, posters that don’t comply with procedures regarding postering on campus are removed by caretaking and grounds staff,” university spokesperson Althea Blackburn-Evans told VICE News in an email. “Messages like this are antithetical to the University’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, which are among our core values. We’ve also contacted the City of Toronto to alert them to the possibility that these posters are on city property around the University.”‘Completely berserk’On Tuesday, a post on 4Chan, an image forum with mostly anonymous users, instructed viewers to print out copies of the black and white poster, put on a “silly halloween costume for anonymity” because “nobody will think twice because it’s Halloween, and put up the posters on campuses and elsewhere on Halloween night.”The next morning, the post predicted, the media would go “completely berserk,” that “normies” would see that “leftists and journalists hate white people” and turn on them.This comes just a few days after University of Alberta President David Turpin said in a statement that campus protective police were investigating an “inappropriate and racist Halloween pumpkin” found on campus. The carved pumpkin, which had feathers sticking out from the top and slashes cut into across the face, was also placed outside a building that houses the Faculty of Native Studies.White supremacist propaganda has been visible at Canadian university campuses for years, but incidents have become more common since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. At the start of this semester, anti-immigration posters from a group called Generation Identity were seen at Carleton University, a few weeks after U of T announced it wouldn’t allow the white supremacist group the Canadian Nationalist Party to hold a rally on campus. Posters from the group Students for Western Civilization have also been seen around both the York and Ryerson University campuses in recent years.
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