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St. Olaf: Report of racist note on black student's windshield was 'fabricated'
 [STARTRIBUNE] A racist threat against a St. Olaf student that touched off campuswide protests and forced the college to cancel classes earlier this month was a hoax, the school revealed Wednesday.A student confessed to writing the note, St. Olaf President David R. Anderson wrote in a message to students. The threat -- an anonymous, typewritten note -- was "fabricated," he said, as an apparent "strategy to draw attention to concerns about the campus climate." "This was not a genuine threat," Anderson wrote in the first of two messages Wednesday to students. "We’re confident that there is no ongoing threat from this incident to individuals or the community as a whole." The note, tucked onto the windshield of a black student’s car on April 29, sparked outrage, fear and hurt on this close-knit private college campus, tucked into the hills of this river town about 45 miles south of the Twin Cities. The revelation that the note was fake was a shock of a different sort. "I think it’s disturbing that it was written deliberately, just to stir up the campus," sophomore Ben Parsell said Wednesday. But would the hoax make it harder for the victim of a genuine racist threat to get help next time? Parsell didn’t think so. A student took a photograph of a banner that hung in Buntrock Commons at St. Olaf College. The college released at statement Wednesday that a racist note left on a black student's car last month was a hoax. "I don’t think the campus would let that happen," he said. For some students, a fake threat doesn’t change the reality of racism, or the positive changes they’ve seen on campus since the protests -- including a task force the university pledged to set up to address minority student concerns. "It’s started something good," said Daniel Katuka. The St. Olaf senior, who is black, said he hasn’t encountered the sort of racism on campus that he’s experienced in the outside world. But he appreciated the St. Olaf community coming together "in a positive way" in the face of an apparent threat. Posted by: Fred 2017-05-12 |
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