Illinois is not necessarily known as a breeding ground for racism, boasting liberal and progressive political views, being the land of Abraham Lincoln who established the Emancipation Proclamation essentially ending slavery, and home of the nations first African-American President Barack Obama. A storied history that shares in the progress of all humanity equally, and it seems a new student group on the University of Illinois campus wants to believe it’s upholding that same message of equality, but in a slightly different way.
The Daily Illini reported that the student groups’ Facebook page was created Wednesday 11/18 and stated it’s purpose as:
“for white students of University of Illinois to be able to form a community and discuss our own issues as well as be able to organize against the terrorism we have been facing from Black Lives Matter activists on campus,”
The original Facebook page was initially removed, but was quickly recreated and can now be found HERE, with more than 3.5 thousand followers. The group was created in response to a Black Lives Matter protest on campus, and is not sanctioned by the University who denounced the group in a statement:
“It is disturbing and cowardly that someone would create an anonymous and senseless social media page specifically designed to intimidate others, including and especially our students. When we became aware of the page, we immediately contacted Facebook and requested that it be removed,” Kaler said in an email. “Facebook has been responsive to our requests, but the page continues to be reposted. We are continuing to work with Facebook to address this matter. We recognize that passions run deep on all sides of many issues, but actions like this are senseless and hurtful and do nothing to foster meaningful dialogue.”