Racist group posts violent messages in Texas State bathrooms

By Ben Mcinnis

bmcinnis3@gmail.com

(956) 205-3751

On Nov. 9, fliers found posted in Texas State University bathrooms expressed white supremacist sentiments and called for the torture of university leaders who advocate increased diversity on college campuses.

The author of the fliers hailed the election of Donald Trump and the takeover by Republicans of the United States Congress as an opportunity for “vigilante squads” to “arrest and torture those deviant university leaders spouting all of this diversity garbage."

 This message was printed on one of the fliers alongside a picture of four armed men striking a menacing pose in front of an American flag. Two other fliers contained rambling essays using dark humor to describe fantasies of illegal immigrants being killed and forced into slavery. 

The literature was allegedly posted by a Pro-Trump organization called the “Texas State Vigilantes”. The group made its debut with this stunt and little is known about it apart from the views expressed in its fliers.

Rightly, some students here at Texas State are quite alarmed by the rhetoric used in the fliers. Hispanic students, like finance major Christian Castaneda are particularly worried about the possibility of racially motivated attacks against them by the group that posted the fliers. “Whoever wrote that stuff is obviously really sick. They said they want to see people get killed. We should take their threats seriously, ” said Castaneda.

The 2016 Presidential Election has caused great upheaval on college campuses across America and Texas State has been no different. Following the victory by President-elect Donald Trump, students took to the quad en-masse to denounce the results. Pro-Trump forces have offered little in the way of public demonstration at Texas State until now.

Many are blaming such expressions of hatred on the chaotic state of American political discourse during the election. Some Texas State students, like geography major Will Keeter attribute the actions of groups like the Texas State Vigilantes to the prevalence of inflammatory rhetoric on social media. "Propaganda on social media is leading people to behave irrationally, " he said.

Although instances like this are bringing attention to the racially-charged statements made by groups endorsing the President-elect, some are quick to defend Trump against accusations of bigotry. Many, like nursing major Phillip Oser do not believe Trump should be held responsible for the extreme views of his supporters. "Trump supporters take things a bit too far sometimes but Trump is not the racist that people think he

is, " said Oser.

The most important question raised by this incident is who wrote and proliferated these fliers. University Police are investigating the incident as a criminal act and they are confident they will be successful in apprehending the perpetrators. Until then, Texas State students are waiting on edge for the next outrageous act of political expression on their campus and hoping that like this time, it is only words.