McMaster “White” Student Union page is a hoax

JMU issued a statement on its Facebook page Monday in response to the “JMU White Student Union” Facebook page that popped up earlier this week.

The New York Daily News is calling the page a hoax.

The University of Queensland has condemned a “racist” Facebook page attempting to garner support for a “white student union” on its campus.

“Anything like the White Student Union will be encouraging and empowering white supremacists, and that’s why its necessary to take a public stand against them”.

UBC made it very clear that the white student union page associated with the school was not sanctioned nor endorsed by the school.

The university said the page appeared to be part of a larger trend that has spread from North America, where dozens of similar pages have appeared, each claiming affiliation with university communities.

The full post on the official JMU page can be viewed here and the full post on the “JMU White Student Union” page can be viewed here. Several such “White Student Union” pages have appeared recently.

The page has 27 likes on Facebook, but has responded to the university’s statement, saying it plans to apply to become an official group next year. “Whether or not this group continues is up to the administrators of SFU”.

Heinrich said that although the administration had already contacted Facebook over the page, students can report the page by using Facebook’s inappropriate content reporting tool.

It’s not clear how numerous pages were created by students who attend the universities they claim to represent. “This group is not affiliated with the SFSS in any way and does not at the moment have a pending application to gain club status”.

“There’s not a significant amount of traction or interaction on that white student union page”, said Kenya Rogers, director of external relations at UVic Student Society.