Several student groups at Arizona State University reacted to a viral video that shows two white students studying in the school’s “multicultural center” being harassed over a laptop sticker, which read, “Police Lives Matter,” claiming the white students displayed imagery of “white supremacy” and “white nationalism.” The students were eventually forced out of the university space. One student group even called for the “expulsion of the two white male students.”
A student group called MECHA de ASU claimed the two white students in the viral video had “provoked” the female students by displaying what they called “their white nationalist symbols and slogans” — referring to the laptop sticker, which read, “Police Lives Matter.”
“A space that is meant to uplift and center black, indigenous, and people of color was transformed into a white nationalist soapbox,” the student group insisted.
MECHA de ASU then complained about the video later being picked up “by large right wing social media accounts,” and claimed it resulted in “the harassment and doxxing of many ASU students.”
“Institutions like ASU have again and again promised to keep BIPOC students safe from these racist, fascist attacks and they have again and again failed,” the student group said, adding that the school has even “gone as far as protecting these white nationalists.”
The group then called on the university to “defund ASU police,” as well as the “expulsion of the two white male students,” a “ban of police lives matter stickers,” and to allow the multicultural center “the power to remove any students from the space as they see fit.”
The school’s Undocumented Students for Education Equity student group released a similar statement in response to the viral video, describing the pro-police sticker as “imagery rooted in white-supremacy.”
“We stand with MSC and those who stood up and protected the space yesterday,” the student group added. “We ask ASU to take action in protecting our students and sanctuary from those who threaten it [the multicultural center] and all it stands for.”
ASU’s Black Graduate Student Association reacted to the video by claiming that “BIPOC [black, indigenous, and people of color] students” were “accosted in the multicultural space,” and thanked the Multicultural Solidarity Coalition for “standing up for marginalized students.”
The school’s Students for Justice in Palestine student group reacted by condemning “those two men,” and called on ASU to “take action by denouncing racism and white supremacy to uphold the safety of marginalized students and their spaces.”
In echoing some of the other student groups’ bizarre statements, the Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter claimed the two white students entered the multicultural center “and displayed stickers with white-nationalist rhetoric.”
“These individuals were infringing on that space and making it unsafe for the community members and when asked to leave the individuals refused and escalated the incident,” the student group added.
“We are disgusted by the events that transpired and the ‘outrage’ that is circulating online,” they continued. “We urge the University and our ASU community to protect the Multi-Cultural Solidarity Coalitions space and defend the enter and the individual from the racist, bigoted, and violent rhetoric which is targeting the space.”
In an equally bizarre statement, the school’s Students for Socialism student group described the viral video as an event in which “two racist men” attacked “BIPOC students.”
“We want to make it clear that as a community, we are incredibly strong and racist attacks are nothing new on campus,” the student group added. “We are willing to do what ever it may take to continue to defend the center and all victims of this discrimination.”
The Students for Socialism group closed its statement by calling on ASU to “make a commitment to its BIPOC students” and “assure this never happens again.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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