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New unofficial student group at the University of Toledo stirs up debate

The white student union Facebook page has been active for over two weeks and currently has 72 likes and multiple shares from both UT students and others.

Yasmine Abdullah, Staff Reporter

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The creation of an unofficial White Student Union at the University of Toledo — through a Facebook page and posters on the free speech boards — has raised many controversial opinions and questions about tolerance against free speech on campus.

The page was originally created by two people. According to one of the original two founders, who chose to remain anonymous due to the potential of threats, others have expressed an interest after seeing flyers and chalk messages, as well as hearing about it through word of mouth.

They founded the page less than two weeks ago, hoping to find more current and former students interested in their ideas and trying to reach out to members of the community in the Toledo area and around northwest Ohio.

During the Facebook interview with the founders, they expressed reservations about revealing their identities.

“For now, not many people have heard of us, and there are less than ten current students that we know of who have expressed an interest in joining. On other campuses, groups like this have received death threats, so the anonymity of the internet is useful, given the real possibility of facing physical reprisal,” the founder wrote.

They also added that they haven’t agreed upon applying for an official status yet, and they don’t expect to get support from the administrators. However, they think it might be better to have an unofficial student group since it won’t allow people to get personal information like the names and addresses of members, which could be used to target the members and harm or harass them.

Lance E. Price, Jr., the UT Black Student Union president said, “To be honest, everybody should be proud of their heritage. However, when you look at the way that group of people lever it they are anonymous because I have yet to see anybody stand up and claim ownership to any of that. [There] is a right way [and] a wrong way to go about it.”

Prince also added that ethnic-based organizations are here to empower and support each other, not to be a mockery to each other.

Many of the ethnic-based organizations on campus are for minorities and since Caucasian people are a majority on UT, some feel there is no need to have them.

WSU said their goal on campus is to celebrate the identity of the indigenous people of Europe and to challenge the structural discrimination they see on campus. They added that there are classes at the university called “Introduction to the African Experience,” and “Foundations of Black Intellectual History,” but there is no class called “Introduction to the European Experience,” or “Foundations of White Intellectual History.”

Thomas Pasch, a third-year student majoring in recreational therapy, wrote in an email interview that the group “seems to be a very tolerant group opting for white people and their heritage, focusing on constitutional rights, but there is some wording that makes me hesitant about their agenda … There is a double-standard with white and black people; if a black person is proud of their heritage, then good for them, whereas if a white person is proud they can be deemed racist.”

The founder of the union wrote that they believe there are unfair racial double-standards on this campus and throughout society. They added that WSU will produce really positive effects, making things more fair and equitable.

“I don’t think they have an opportunity to be an actual group on campus or exist, but to be honest if they actually were able to physically appear and take ownership for what they try to start, I’d love to sit down to talk and hear what they have to say, but that hasn’t happened, so as far as I am concerned it’s irrelevant,” Prince said.

The White Student Union allows anyone to join as long as they share the same ideas and can be contacted through their Facebook page.

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