In the past month at OU, white nationalist posters were glued to university walls, racist fliers were found in a campus building, a now-former student was suspended for their involvement in racist group messages and two anti-Black Lives Matter protesters enraged an audience of hundreds on the South Oval.
And on the morning of the Nov. 14 runoff election for Student Government Association president between J.D. Baker and Ryan Echols, the winner, Baker, who is black, discovered that many of the materials promoting his campaign had been ripped from walls or yanked from the ground and thrown in trash cans.
The recent uptick in these types of incidents, plus the Nov. 9 election of Donald Trump for U.S. president, have created a climate of terror for many OU students, Baker said.
"I don't want to equate (those perpetuating racism) to ISIS, but ... they want to break the structure of the way things are, and they're very radical, and they really want to frighten people," Baker said.
"I would say it's terror."
The Identity Evropa posters found on campus Oct. 17 displayed messages such as "Let's Become Great Again" and "Protect Your Heritage." The racist fliers found in the Physical Sciences Center Nov. 14 said black men are more likely to abuse their significant others, more likely to have STDs and that people "should probably just avoid black men."
"I was pretty furious," said Kathleen Crowther, an associate professor of the history of science at OU and the woman who found one of the fliers. "I'm just angry about it because I know a lot of my students are frightened and upset and angry about the level of harassment and hostility that's been going on."
The student OU President David Boren suspended Nov. 11, who is no longer enrolled at OU and has not been publicly identified, was involved in messages sent to black freshmen at the University of Pennsylvania that promoted lynching and contained other racially explicit content.
The Associated Press reported Nov. 16 that the student was also offered admission into Penn, an Ivy League school, in May. The messages, according to Penn, appear to have originated in Oklahoma, but not at OU, Boren said in a statement. A student at Tulsa Community College was also suspended Nov. 15 in connection to the messages.
"I feel on-edge. I feel vulnerable. And in some ways, I do feel threatened," Baker told The Daily perhaps minutes before the anti-Black Lives Matter protesters sparked fury on campus Nov. 16.
An anti-Black Lives Matter protester is pictured behind a woman holding a "Black Lives Matter sign." Close to 100 students gathered on the South Oval in outrage over the anti-Black Lives Matter protester.
The two anti-Black Lives Matter "preachers," one of whom was the infamous "Brother Jim," spewed racist, sexist and anti-religious rhetoric in front of hundreds of angry students before voluntarily leaving campus in an OU Police Department vehicle.
"Brother Jim" called many students of all ethnicities racist, said "liberals have no sense of humor" and said he does not let women tell him what to do, among other sentiments. Boren eventually approached the scene, was helped up onto the time capsule north of the Seed Sower statue, and shaking in anger, told Brother Jim and his companion through a bullhorn to leave campus.
.@President_Boren here.
— Andrew Clark (@Clarky_Tweets) November 16, 2016
"You have no place to be here. You have no right to be here." pic.twitter.com/S7mewdZuSc
After Boren spoke, Najee Bissoon, a walk-on Oklahoma running back, took the bullhorn and shared a message of his own.
"At this time in America, everybody knows there's so much division," Bissoon said. "There's only one thing that can conquer hate, and that's f*cking love."
Bissoon said after the protesters left that unity is what the campus needs.
"Here on this campus, everybody is different ... Every puzzle piece is different, but you put all those puzzle pieces together, it makes a beautiful picture," he said.
"Just sitting here yelling at them, we're just giving temporary solutions to a long-term problem."
Oklahoma running back Najee Bissoon speaks to students and Norman community members following an anti-Black Lives Matter protest Nov. 16.
Boren said in a statement after the event that he deplores the two's attempts to "turn Americans against one another in a time when we should be reaching out to each other with respect and kindness."
OU Press Secretary Corbin Wallace said in a statement that their future return to campus will depend on their ability to stay on public property and avoid causing a dangerous situation. Boren told students at the scene he would have the men arrested if they set foot on university property since they did not have a permit.
Sana Sandhu, the public relations director of the Muslim Student Association at OU, said hearing the rhetoric at the anti-BLM rally was disheartening.
"It was really scary," she said. "I was walking past it, and I walked straight into the library and didn't leave until I knew it was over, which terrified me. I've never had to do that before."
Unity was a facet of Baker's platform before the anti-BLM rally, before Crowther found the fliers, before Trump's election and before the OU student was suspended for racist messages. He said unity is not necessarily more important to him now than it was before, but that it is definitely more needed.
In the face of this repeated prejudice and adversity, Baker said his grace has been challenged — and he has not even taken office yet.
"One part of me just wants to (tell those perpetuating hatred to) 'Go to hell' or 'Go f*ck yourself,'" he said. "But another part of me knows ... There's no progress in that.
"I think the best thing is finding civility. Where can we find civility?" he asked.
Hannah Pike contributed to this report.
