KENT, Ohio (AP) - A landmark at Kent State University was painted with white supremacist graffiti for a third time since the beginning of the school year.
On Monday, the school’s administration said it was appalled by a white supremacist slogan painted on a campus landmark known as the Rock for a third time since the started of classes in August, Cleveland.com reported.
“Because of the repeated nature of these messages, we are investigating several potential actions, including fencing off the Rock, installing security cameras and even the Rock’s removal,” Kent State said in a statement.
The Rock is a large boulder that students have traditionally painted and repainted at Kent State, a school where the Ohio National Guard shot students protesting the Vietnam war in 1970.
Images on Twitter showed the phrase, “Blacks have no home here,” painted on the Rock over the phrase, “Hate has no home here.”
A group for Black students at Kent State, Black United Students, had painted the Rock twice with images like a historic Black Nubian queen, the phrase, “Say their names,” and a raised black fist, the Akron Beacon reported.
Twice, the slogan, “White Lives Matter,” was painted over those images, the newspaper reported.
“For those of you who do not know, the term ‘White Lives Matter’ was coined by neo-nazis (sic) and white supremacists,” Black United Students wrote in a statement.
The group is demanding multiple actions from the university, including that it add a provision in the school’s code of conduct that would mandate students involved in hateful speech be expelled, they said in statement.
The exchange of slogans uplifting the Black Lives Matter movement and opposing it is yet another example of the intense and polarized debate over racial inequity, policing and the meaning of public safety that is playing out across the country.
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