WMU administrator reportedly calls 'Back the Blue' and 'All Lives Matter' slogans 'white supremacist'
A university administrator discovered that a building was vandalized with "white supremacist slogans."
The three phrases reported to have been spray-painted inside of the building were “All Lives Matter,” “Back The Blue,” and “Blue Lives Matter.”
A university administrator reportedly said that the terms “All Lives Matter,” “Back The Blue,” and “Blue Lives Matter” are all “white supremacist slogans” when condemning a vandalism incident.
In the middle of the night on March 10, the inside of WMU’s Gilmore Theatre Complex was vandalized with spray-painted slogans. The three slogans which were spray-painted on the walls and on the floor read out, “All Lives Matter,” “Back The Blue,” and “Blue Lives Matter.”
According to WWMT, Joan Herrington, the university’s theatre department chair, was the one of the first people discovered the vandalism. She declared that the slogans were “inflammatory” and “white supremacist” in a letter that she sent out to students.
Herrington’s message to students also asserts that the vandalism was “a crime against our community - a willful and shameful effort to cause injury and divide us,” adding, “We will take this as a crucial reminder of the work that must be done to dismantle the racism embedded in our world.”
WWMT reports that Western spokesperson Paula Davis confirmed the phrases in question, and said “We don’t know the intention of this person, but we know the background of how that term is frequently used.”
Following the incident, the university even went as far as bringing in counsellors to help students mentally process what happened.
[RELATED: Students call for ‘immediate firing’ of prof who casually observed Back the Blue rally]
Meghan Corbett, a senior at WMU described the vandalism as “absolutely unacceptable” when speaking to Campus Reform.
“Not only was this an act of vandalism, but it was also one rooted in hate against the BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) community. It’s one thing to hold up a sign on the corner of a street supporting ‘All Lives’ and ‘Blue Lives,’ but it’s another to make it permanent,” Corbett said. “It was an act of vandalism and it was an act of white supremacy whether you think it or not.”
Michael Loftin, also a senior at WMU, told Campus Reform that vandalism is “not the way to go about” disagreement.
“I feel like people should be able to express their opinions even if people disagree, but vandalizing is not the way to go about it,” explained Loftin.
Campus Reform reached out to Western Michigan University for comment, but did not receive a response.
