Two black students at Salisbury University drew a stick figure hanging from a noose on a whiteboard in the taxpayer-funded school’s library, police say. The image also featured the word “N****r!” (with the exclamation point) and the hashtag #WhitePower.
Wow. I have no words. Whoever drew this in Blackwell is sick. This makes me angry as hell. pic.twitter.com/I3YwmgxkUW
— Bri. (@Briyaa) April 10, 2016
The hoax incident caused great calamity on the 8,657-student campus in Salisbury, Md. The Salisbury University Police Department initiated a hate-crime investigation. However, upon learning that the unidentified students are black, authorities chose to file no charges, reports The Daily Times, a local newspaper.
The racist image appeared inside Blackwell Library on April 10, around the time of the school’s eighth annual “Stop Hatin'” week, which centers on diversity and acceptance.
On Tuesday, school officials announced that two students responsible for the image are black. Officials cited the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law, as their rationale for not naming the students.
Administrators criticized the racist drawing.
“Regardless of who created the drawing, we find such actions demeaning to all members of the campus community and against our core values,” Salisbury U. media relations director Richard Culver lamented, according to the Times.
Culver noted that the unnamed students may still face discipline by school officials. The exact nature of the discipline is unclear.
Before campus cops determined that two black students had drawn the image, Salisbury University president Janet Dudley-Eshbach had released a stern, serious statement.
“Diversity is a core value of SU, and reports of such acts are taken seriously,” Eshbach declared, according to the Times. “The university will not tolerate this kind of language or behavior.”
Eschbach observed that the racist image appeared following “Stop Hatin'” week, noted The Flyer, Salisbury State’s student newspaper. Eschbach said she was “heartened to see many members of the campus come together” during “Stop Hatin'” week.
As at many campuses around the country, minority students at Salisbury U. have complained recently about race issues. In November, a group of students met with Eshbach to discuss their grievances. The encounter did not go well. The students walked out after reading a letter to the school president.
“As students of color, WE DO NOT” — that part was in all-caps — “point fingers nor cast blame for the lack of awareness and understanding in regards to the black experience here at Salisbury University,” the missive said, according to the Times.
“However, we refuse to deny that the current environment on campus takes a huge toll on the psyche of students of color affected by the subconscious oppression.”
About 25 percent of the students at Salisbury University represent minorities.
The Salisbury University hoax is the latest in a long series of hate crime hoaxes on college campuses featuring racist statements or imagery perpetrated by black people.
Last year saw a banner crop of such incidents. (RELATED: The Daily Caller Presents: The Biggest, Dumbest Race Hoaxes And Fake Hate Crimes On Campus In 2015)
November was the most impressive month, by far.
NEXT PAGE: Recent race hoaxes
At Saginaw Valley State University in central Michigan, for example, black student Emmanuel D. Bowden took to Yik Yak to declare: “I’m going to shoot every black person I can on campus. Starting tomorrow morning.” Upon receiving highly negative feedback on the social media app, police say, Bowden backtracked with messages saying “I’m black” and “I was going to give it an hour to see how you all would react.” Bowden was charged with making a false report on a threat of terrorism and appears to have experienced great difficulty getting bailed out of jail. (RELATED: Guy Who Threatened To ‘Shoot Every Black’ Kid On Campus… Is Black)
At the University of Missouri, following the forced resignation of the school president, an attack by a white professor on student journalists attempting to cover protests, a poop swastika, a brief strike by 32 football players and a six-day hunger strike by the fancypants-rich-boy son of a millionaire railroad executive, hysterical students created a bogus rumor that the Ku Klux Klan was roaming campus. It was a Tuesday night. The rumors appear to have been given major life after the student body president, Payton Head, made a Facebook post declaring that the KKK sighting had been confirmed and that he was actively working with police and even the National Guard on the matter. (RELATED: Mizzou Students Hallucinate KKK On Campus)
Pandemonium struck students and administrators alike at the University of Delaware after students claimed they discovered three “nooses” hanging from trees after a Black Lives Matter rally. A police investigation was rapidly launched. Once police officers actually took a close look at the “nooses,” they “determined that the three noose-like items were not instruments of a hate crime, but the remnants of paper lanterns.” After the “hate crime” was exposed as a total non-event, school officials doubled on the necessity of fighting hate on campus. (RELATED: University Of Delaware Outraged Over Non-Existent Hate Crime)
At Harvard Law School, some unknown person went to Wasserstein Hall and carefully placed strips of very-easily-removable black tape over portraits of black professors. Naturally, many Harvard students quickly labeled the incident as a savage hate crime showing the horror lurking beneath the surface at the venerated Ivy League bastion. However, several aspects of the “hate crime” suggest it is almost certainly a hoax. One particularly noteworthy red flag is that the black tape used to deface the portraits appears to be identical to tape previously used by activists affiliated with a group called “Royall Must Fall” to tape over a Harvard Law seal. (RELATED: Harvard Students Decry ‘Hate Crime’ After Tape Found On Black Profs’ Portraits)
At Calvin College — a small liberal arts college in Michigan — swastikas and the words “white power” were found written in snow on several cars. Two students confessed to the deed, but their names, motivations and punishments haven’t been revealed. In all likelihood, the stunt was either a hoax intended to show evidence of intolerance or a poorly conceived prank rather than an act of hate. The tempest in Calvin College’s teapot caused Joseph Kuilema, a social work professor at the school, to pen a column in the school newspaper accusing his students and fellow faculty members of being white supremacists for failing to accept the notion of “white privilege.” Kuilema also charged that the school itself and, in fact, the entire state of Michigan only exist because of white privilege. (RELATED: Professor Blames White Privilege For The Existence Of Michigan)
A black graduate of Kean University in New Hampshire used a school computer to threaten to “shoot every black woman and male” on campus. The 24-year-old grad, Kayla-Simone McKelvey, was charged with creating a false public alarm after reportedly making death threats and bomb threats against black students and professors. Police say McKelvey, who is black and a self-described race activist, used Twitter and a computer at the taxpayer-funded New Jersey school. McKelvey reportedly chose the Twitter handle @keanuagainstblk (Kean University against black) to make the threats. Police said McKelvey also tweeted: “kean university twitter against blacks is for everyone who hates blacks people.” (RELATED: Black Activist Made Death Threats To Black Students, Faculty)
Follow Eric on Twitter. Like Eric on Facebook. Send education-related story tips to erico@dailycaller.com.