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SALT LAKE CITY — Posters containing racist comments were removed from several locations on the University of Utah campus, according to reports received Thursday.
In a tweet posted Thursday afternoon, Sistas in Zion said the posters were tacked up around campus and were "mass emailed to the Black Student Union."
On one of the posters read, “Stop the rapes, stop the crime, stop the murder, stop the blacks.”
The poster shows what appears to be a depiction of a black man grabbing a white woman.
This poster & others like it were reportedly posted around campus & mass emailed to the Black Student Union. @UUtah can u please verify? pic.twitter.com/ljFD8EL8lT
— Sistas in Zion (@SISTASinZION) August 10, 2017
The poster states, in smaller font, “Over 100 White women are raped or sexually assaulted by Black men every day in the United States.”
Another line reads, “Blacks commit 50% of all murders, despite being only 12% of the population.”
KSL.com could not find any official data to corroborate the statistics listed on the poster. Some FBI data point to a high number of arrests, but not convictions.
Posters have been removed from campus.
“We were alerted about the two posters last week after they had already been removed,” a tweet from the university’s official Twitter account read. “Campus police & the dean of students were notified. The university also said via Twitter that it could not verify the claim that images were mass emailed to the Black Student Union.
The posters do not "reflect the values and beliefs of the University of Utah," Annalisa Purser, University of Utah associate director of communications, said in a statement to KSL.
“Although we encourage freedom of speech and critical conversations, the university does not tolerate hateful speech or discrimination against any part of our campus community,” she said. “We reaffirm our commitment to fostering an environment where students, faculty and staff can exchange ideas respectfully."
In an interview with KSL, Zadra Vranes, of “Sistas in Zion,” agreed with the university’s comments on the posters, but would have liked to have seen them acknowledge what had happened sooner.
“I think the statement is the right tone, the timing is the wrong timing,” Vranes said. “I would have loved to (have) seen the university come out with this the minute they had found out that, yes indeed, these racist posters had been posted on our campus.” Vranes said the public needs to be aware that this type of racist commentary is still around, trying to influence a young audience.
“These issues are still happening today,” she said. “And they’re happening to people who are … 18, 20 (years old). These are the people that this was targeted to — to impact and to influence. Even in such a young demographic, we’re still seeing that this is happening.”
