A local news source has reported that antisemitic and racist graffiti was found on the Duke University campus ahead of an NAACP event.
The graffiti read “Gas the Kikes”. Such a statement is not just merely antisemitic, but could easily be considered an act of incitement. Using the imagery of the Holocaust to target and incite Jews is an unambiguous call for genocide.
Other graffiti included “F*ck N*ggers”.
Alec Greenwald, who works with the Duke chapter of NAACP, told the press “as we were waiting for the other student groups to trickle in, my kids wanted to read some of the messages that were on the tunnel. As we walked through the tunnel, we arrived at 3 derogatory messages targeting various identity groups. After having a conversation with my kids about the messages, I suggested to the student groups that we focus on that portion of the wall to paint over“.
The identity of the perpetrator is currently unknown, but the police are investigating.
A Duke University NAACP Representative commented:
“The hate speech covering the graffiti wall was unfortunate, but perhaps more unfortunate was that the existence of the slurs was genuinely unsurprising to many of the students present. Racism and homophobia are not relics of an ancient and forgotten America—or Duke, for that matter—that has since been cleansed of imperfection with time. They are instead inevitable in the experience of many of the students on this campus. Extreme examples such as this only serve to remind us of the work that remains to be done in ensuring that members of our community feel safe during their earned pursuit of academic excellence.”