White Nationalist Posters Raise Ire At OU

Posters from a white nationalist group were seen and removed early this week from several Oklahoma University campus buildings after authorities were notified of their presence on campus.

The posters went up on six campus buildings Monday and were removed that same day. All posters were linked to the white nationalist group “Identity Evropa” (read Europa). A “V” is commonly used among alternative right groups as a substitute for “U” as a way to remove a symbol of femininity from their name. It is also seen as a reflection of the Roman empire heritage of Europeans. News 9 has chosen to use a “U” in the spelling for the sake of comprehension.

The group calls itself a European heritage organization and adorns its posters with phrases telling white students to "preserve your heritage” and "serve your people”. One poster even borrowed a phrase from this year's presidential election by telling white students "let's be great again”.

“It's not political it's just people being hateful and people inciting disgusting things,” said Junior Eric Sundby.

Sundby heads OU's Holocaust Remembrance and Restitution Foundation and said he's not surprised OU was targeted by the group.

“Seeing it here on this campus wasn't surprising, it was not expecting at the moment,” said Sundby.

This is not OU's first brush with racism on campus, two years ago the Fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon was banned from campus after a racist chant on a fraternity bus was caught on video prompting national outrage.

The Identity Europa posters which have been seen on at least a dozen other campuses nationwide, including several other Big12 schools, per the group’s Twitter account. The posters are a part of a social media campaign with the hashtag #projectsiege. According to the group’s website, the campaign is the “beginning of a long-term war of attrition” with academia.

The OU student group the Brown Collective, is one of many students and organizations to condemn the posters.

OU tweeted in part about the posters "And we still question why students feel unsafe on this campus!"

It’s still unclear who put the posters up around campus. A spokesperson for OU President David Boren, Corbin Wallace, said in an email the offices of OU Student Affairs and “other OU officials” were looking into the posters including whether vandalism charges would be filed.

"Posters and flyers will be reviewed in light of University policy and evaluated on an individual basis. If the they are determined to contain hate speech they will be removed."