In September, the Chief Diversity at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Dr. Nefertiti Walker, sent a campus-wide email warning of a “disturbing increase in anti-Black racist incidents,” saying the content of the messages was “vile” and “violently offensive”:
Over the course of several weeks dating back to late August, Black student groups at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have received offensive, blatantly racist emails and online messages.
In their inboxes, Black UMass students have been told by an anonymous person or group that they did not arrive at the commonwealth’s flagship campus on merit, that they are of substandard intelligence, and that they should consider sterilization.
The messages, at least one of which was signed “UMass Coalition for a Better Society,” have been sent to multiple Black student organizations in the first month of school.
Copies of the messages circulated on social media:
University President Marty Meehan vowed swift action:
“The blatantly racist e-mails recently sent to Black student organizations at UMass Amherst and other deplorable acts of anti-Black hatred are appalling and disgusting,” Meehan said in a statement. “While UMass Amherst is still trying to identify the source of these messages, we do know that the messages in no way reflect the true character of the UMass community and we have zero tolerance for such behavior.”
UMass IT and campus police are investigating the identity of the email sender.
“My team in the Office of the President is working with UMass Amherst to investigate and to identify the individuals and/or organizations responsible for these hate-ridden messages, and hold them accountable wherever they are,” Meehan said. “As the campus aggressively pursues the source of these vile messages, we must all join in active support of our students, and re-double our commitment to providing a safe, welcoming community for all students.”
The university doubled-down on the investigation:
UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy announced that the campus will launch a full-scale investigation into the source of the emails and that the university has secured the services of Stroz Friedberg Digital Forensics, a leading national firm in cyber security.
“While we are mindful of the challenges in determining the source of anonymous emails such as these, we are confident that Stroz Friedberg, with its extensive expertise and technical capacity, will methodically follow every lead in pursuit of the contemptible individual or individuals responsible,” Subbaswamy said in a message to the campus community. . . .
“When the perpetrator of any of these acts is identified, the full weight of the university’s disciplinary and legal apparatus will be brought to bear,” Subbaswamy said in the campus message.
That was September, and now it’s December and yet, despite the services of “a leading national firm in cyber security,” UMass still has not identified the “contemptible” perpetrators, a mystery that inspires Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr’s sarcasm:
Like O.J., they pledge to spend eternity chasing down the real killers. But so far, apparently, not a single MAGA hat or Let’s Go Brandon! T-shirt has turned up at the scene of the crime. Not even a discarded pay stub from a real job.
The snowflakes of Amherst are, as you might expect, baffled.
It’s certainly discouraging, isn’t it, how few of these campus white supremacists are ever brought to justice. In fact, usually they’re never even found. They seldom leave behind a single clue.
Yes, white supremacists are fiendish criminal masterminds, like those Chicago guys in MAGA hats who attacked Jussie Smollett and got away with it because . . . well, white supremacy.
(Hat-tip: Instapundit.)
