University Police are investigating flyers found in Crowe Hall reading “IT’S OKAY TO BE WHITE,” deputy chief of police Gloria Graham told The Daily.

Graham said in an email that an individual reported the posters after finding them on a bulletin board and deeming them “offensive.” UP currently has an “open case,”Graham added.

Religious studies Prof. Cristina Traina, chair of the department, said two religious studies graduate students contacted her Saturday after finding the posters and taking them down. The students removed about 15 posters, Traina said.

Though the posters were spread out across different floors of the building, she said there was a cluster of seven posted on the fifth floor, near the department of African American studies. One student reported seeing a poster as early as Friday evening, Traina said.

African American studies and Communication Prof. E. Patrick Johnson, chair of the African American studies department, deferred comment to Traina.

The students reported the posters to Northwestern’s Bias Incident Response Team and also reached out to UP, Traina said.

Similar posters have recently shown up on college campuses and in other locations across the country, The Washington Post reported. The posters have potential links to white nationalism, according to The Post, and may be inspired by an anonymous comment on the website 4chan that suggested the posters could create social unrest and push white Americans toward far-right ideologies.

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