North Carolina”s Davidson College has opened an investigation after a photo was posted to social media showing antisemitic and racist graffiti on campus.
The college condemned the vandalism in a statement, describing it as a “threatening act.”
The graffiti targeted the Jewish and Black communities, according to WBTV.
“This act is threatening and an affront to the sense of community that binds us,” the college said. “At Davidson, all of us are called to honor the dignity and worth of every person. We value religious and racial diversity and inclusion, while we deplore racism and bigotry and advocate for a more just world.”
The college added that it was “important that members of our community feel safe and supported on campus, including in parts of the campus that are open to all.”
“Even though we know that racism and bigotry exist in our society, it is still shocking and distressing when they show up on campus in such a bold and aggressive way and with messages of violence,” the statement said. “This violation wounds people we love and value. We all need to recognize and respect their pain. We need to speak up to defend and support them and our values as a community.”
Davidson police have opened an investigation. The department is also increase the presence of officers on campus.
But a group of Jewish students released a statement noting they were concerned the response was not strong enough, according to CBS 17.
“We worry that this response has not recognized the real and persistent history of racism and antisemitism on Davidson”s campus,” the statement from the students said. “The statement treats the incident as isolated, ignoring the long history of the exclusion of Jews from Davidson”s faculty and student population. Further, the statement has no mention of the history of antisemitism at Davidson, including the Neo-Nazi incident that occurred on our campus four years ago.”

The students added: “We feel that it is wrong and dangerous to treat this weekend”s hate crime as separate from the larger history of Jew-hatred at Davidson. (As Jewish students, we can only write about the impact this has had on our community we imagine there is a similar frustration among Black students who have also been directly targeted).”
They called on the college to “recognize the true breadth of the problem so that we can begin an honest conversation about Davidson”s past and about the efforts to make Davidson safe for Jews and other marginalized groups moving forward.”
“We hope that in the coming days there will be a more active effort to support the communities targeted by this incident. There has been, to our knowledge, no effort to specifically reach out to Jewish students on campus,” the statement said.