NYU Undergrad Explains Reasoning Behind 'White Student Union' Facebook Page

New York University is not amused. Per a report in the Daily News, it has asked Facebook to intervene with regards to the Facebook group NYU White Student Union: "There is no such organization as this at NYU, the Facebook page is using NYU's logo illegally and without permission, and we have contacted Facebook to demand the NYU logo be removed," NYU Director of Public Affairs Matt Nagel said in a statement to the Daily News on Monday. "We reject — and we call on others to reject — efforts such as this to derail or distort candid, thoughtful discourse on race." On Facebook, the page is described as serving 'a community for NYU students of European descent.' The group administrator has quickly responded to the Daily News item by David Boroff, Dale Eisinger and Jason Silverstein: I would like to thank the Daily News for reporting on us, but I feel that I need to correct some misstatements and clear some things up. First of all while we do want to empower white students, we feel that the phrase "white power" is meant to imply connections with historically racist groups, and we do not condone racism in any form or have any connections to these groups. We are here to celebrate whiteness, not to denigrate other groups. Mr. Silverstein did reach out to us via private message at 12:15am last night, after I had retired for the evening. I intended to respond to his inquiry this morning, but then saw he went ahead with his report. Separately, the page's founder spoke to The Tab but chose to remain anonymous, saying only that they are a liberal arts undergrad student from Montclair, N.J. Per the conversation with Mstrong>Jyo Fernandes: Can non-white students join? Of course. We want allies of all races if they are willing to use their time with us advocating for our issues. We have had many students of color reaching out with sympathetic messages, particularly those of East Asian descent. Is this part of a national movement of white student unions and how is that progressing? Yes it is. We are small, but there are activists at colleges around the country currently and we are in touch informally with each other and support each other. There is no centralized organization though, it is mostly on a volunteer basis at this point. We urge any concerned students that agree with us to start their own White Student Unions on their campus. This morning, the group administrator also acknowledges that a mountain of media requests have come in. So expect to see more coverage as we head into Thanksgiving. Read the rest of The Tab Q&A here.

Fishbowl

NYU Undergrad Explains Reasoning Behind 'White Student Union' Facebook Page

Many believed the page launched Nov. 20 is a joke. It's not.

Richard Horgan

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Richard Horgan