Identity Evropa, a white supremacist “alt-right” group, hung two controversial banners from the roof of Price Center last week. This is not the first time the group has posted signs, stickers, or vandalized property on campus, and while students bring this to the attention of faculty and UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla, the group continues to post on school property.
The two banners hung from the roof of the Price Center and Bookstore on Oct. 2. One of the signs read, “No Amnesty! End DACA!” and the other read, “Carry on, Citizen, THERE IS NO BANNER HERE.” Both banners violated UCSD’s campus posting policies and were removed once they were seen by campus faculty.
In a statement forwarded to the UCSD Guardian by NBC 7, Interim Senior Director of Strategic Communications Laura Margoni announced that the university is looking into the banners.
“The incident is currently under investigation,” Margoni said. “These actions are hurtful to many and counter to UC San Diego’s values and Principles of Community. We encourage students, faculty, and staff to report incidents such as these so that they can be immediately investigated by the appropriate campus authorities.”
However, a graduate student, who wishes to remain anonymous due to past harassment, told the Guardian he has reached out to the police, Interim Director of the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination Carol Rogers, and Khosla, but not much has been done.
“Almost a year ago, in September of 2016, I contacted the OPHD regarding racist vandalism that had occurred across campus. A white supremacist group, Identity Evropa, had put racist and fascist stickers on light poles, walls, announcement boards, etc., in a circuit stretching from Warren Lecture Hall up to the Sun God statue,” the student said in an email to Khosla.
“The group involved in the UCSD vandalism, Identity Evropa, and its leader Nathan Damigo were intimately involved in organizing the terrorism in Charlottesville,” the student continued. “When you had an actual opportunity to make the smallest effort to tackle fascist organizing on campus, your administration did nothing, despite evidence of a crime, despite the history of right-wing intimidation on this campus, and despite the danger that fascist and white supremacist groups pose to our faculty, staff and students.”
However, as the student kept on bringing up this issue, the response from Rogers was “the first amendment protects some speech that we may find offensive.”
In response to the Price Center postings, UCSD and UC Santa Cruz alumni decided to take matters into their own hands by walking around campus with a sign saying “Eat S— Nazis” and expressed how they felt about the situation.
“We had already been planning to make this Eat S— Nazi banner so that we could fly it on a kite, but when the incident happened, we kicked it into high gear to finish making the banner that day in order to respond,” UCSD Alumni William Johnson said. “I was hoping that the current students would be inspired to act on this, like we acted against racism and the Compton Cookout.”
“[Identity Evropa] actively advocates for a policy of ethnic cleansing. This is a dangerous ideology that should not go unchecked by the general population, and the fact that so many were oblivious to the fact that white nationalists conducted an action on campus is really troubling.”
Along with the controversial banners, a picture of Nate Parker, an African American musician coming to campus, was defaced with Nicolas Custous’ sculpture of Julius Caesar, possibly by Identity Europa.
