Sticky note with racist message prompts concern at UNLV
A sticky note with the words, “kill the blacks,” written on the small blue piece of paper was found this week by UNLV students, prompting worries of hostility toward minorities on campus.
The anonymous note was left unattended in the Lied Library, but there was also a second report of someone making “hostile” gun-pointing movements toward African-American students.
“Students are quite critical of campus because President Trump is coming into town and the LVCVA convention center is just a couple miles away,” student activist Karl Catarata said. “This Post-it note, and this other hate-filled incident that had occurred, along with the president rolling into town with his ‘Make America Great Again’ followers, it’s concerning.”
UNLV Sgt. Paul Velez said police have a partial description of the person who made the gun-pointing gestures, and are sifting through library security camera footage.
Velez said the gesture occurred on Thursday, Sept. 13 and the note was found on Monday.
“We don’t know if they’re isolated incidents or connected right now,” he said. “We’re investigating both.”
The note and the reports of the hostile gesture come about two weeks after UNLV was again named one of the most diverse college campuses in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
UNLV Acting President Marta Meana has said that the designation “indicated a richness at our university, a richness of perspective and a richness of backgrounds that can only enhance the educational experience.”
In a statement on Thursday, Meana said being the most diverse university “is not just a ranking.”
“It is a mindset and a culture that embraces our differences, knowing that we are stronger because of them,” she said. “We deeply value our diversity and we stand united against threats to any member of our UNLV family.”
Christopher Roys, UNLV’s student body president, issued a memo in response to the incidents, saying that those who threaten students, faculty, staff or anyone else on campus is not welcome at the university.
“Threats of violence and hate crimes are taken very seriously,” Roys said in the memo. “I am not alone in this zero-tolerance for such despicable acts.”
Roys said in the memo that police services and university administration are investigating the threat, and asked for anyone with information about the incident to contact UNLV’s police department.
“To the students that feel personally affected by this incident, we stand with you, and we support you to the fullest extent,” Roys said in the memo. “We are stronger together and we must not allow violent, threatening or otherwise hateful language go unchecked.”
Contact Natalie Bruzda at nbruzda@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3897. Follow @NatalieBruzda on Twitter.
Memo on Threatening Language by Las Vegas Review-Journal on Scribd
