Photo of the noose discovered on DePaul University’s Lincoln Park campus in Chicago. Photo courtesy of Twitter.
Racially insensitive incidents on the campuses of predominately white universities have become all too common. Some of the many incidents included a Black History Month banner defaced with bananas at Clemson, the abuse of Black and Latino students during a visit to Texas A&M. Now this.
According to NBC5 Chicago, DePaul University officials are investigating reports of a noose found on their Lincoln Park campus Thursday. The university sent out an e-mail alert to students, notifying them of the “horrific symbol of racist intimidation” that was discovered.
“These reports are being investigated and those found to be responsible will be held accountable,” the alert read.
The noose turned up a few days after a group of Black Lives Matter activists disrupted the speech of a blogger infamous for his conservative views, DNAinfo.com reports. The entire ordeal was caught on tape.
Footage shows Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos in the middle of speaking at a DePaul College Republicans event Tuesday when a demonstrator burst into the room blowing a whistle.
“This man is an idiot,” the protester shouted to the crowd.
According to DNAinfo.com, chaos ensued when more protesters hopped on stage with Yiannopoulos and began chanting phrases like “dump the Trump” and “Black Lives Matter.” The conservative audience yelled back, “get a job!” At one point during the video, a female activist yanks the microphone from an interviewer and is later seen yelling in the conservative blogger’s face.
Surprisingly, security never stepped in to stop the chaos, the news site reports.
Per The DePaulia, a group of nearly 100 protesters were outside the event, standing in solidarity after voicing concerns regarding racial tensions on campus. The pandemonium of the College Republicans event occurred soon after the phrase “F-ck Mexico” was found painted on the quad earlier that day.
The chaos happening inside the university’s student center eventually spilled out onto the rest of the campus, as Yiannopoulos and his supporters marched to the presidents office to complain, the DePaulia reports. Black Lives Matter demonstrators remained congregated outside.
“I didn’t expect it to be like this,” freshman and conservative student Kelly Eisaman told the publication. “This was insane. I know DePaul is like this, a mostly liberal area. I’m not going to deny that. But I thought things hit the fan. This was ridiculous.”
A spokeswoman for the university said no students were arrested at the event, but a non-student was taken into custody by Chicago Police.
“The university is reviewing events to determine whether any disciplinary action is warranted,” she said in a statement.
According to The DePaulia, the first demonstrator to rush the stage that evening, Ed Ward, posted a video to Facebook Wednesday saying he had no remorse for interrupting the event.
“Let me be perfectly clear, I do not apologize for my actions on DePaul’s campus,” the DePaul alum said. “I don’t apologize for refusing to allow a racist, bigot to spew his hatred on DePaul’s campus. I don’t apologize for shutting the event down. I don’t apologize.”
School officials are still investigating exactly how that noose ended up on campus.
*Protest begins around 46:32 mark:
https://youtu.be/Pw-MnRyIoQY
