From the Washington Post on Wednesday:

Signs saying ‘it’s okay to be white’ found at Maryland high school

By Donna St. George November 1

Fliers saying “it’s okay to be white” were found taped to the exterior doors of a Maryland high school Wednesday morning, apparently as part of an effort to spark racial division.

The principal at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring sent a letter home to families informing them that the signs were discovered on 10 doors at 5:45 a.m. and removed by staff before students arrived for ­classes.

“We are taking this seriously and are investigating this incident,” wrote Renay Johnson, the school’s principal. “Our research so far has indicated that this may be part of a concerted national campaign to foment racial and political tension in our school and community. The same flier was posted in other cities and communities this week.”

Johnson described the school community as “smart, diverse and inclusive” and said it would not “fall victim to attempts to divide us.”

“We are committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment for every student,” the principal’s letter said.

At the University of Alberta in Canada, one of the posters appeared Tuesday outside the school’s Native Studies department, according to a media report. That came a day after a racist jack-o’-lantern was left outside the same academic office.

“Messaging or displays that target or marginalize any individuals or groups will not be tolerated,” the president of the University of Alberta, David Turpin, said in a statement.

‘It’s okay to be white’ signs and stickers appear on campuses and streets across the country

By Janell Ross November 3 at 10:07 PM

Posters proclaiming “IT’S OKAY TO BE WHITE” have been appearing on college campuses and on city streets across the country this week, prompted by an anonymous chat-room comment that suggested the message would feed social unrest and sway white Americans to far-right ideologies.

Since Tuesday, the posters have been spotted in Rocky River, Ohio; at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn.; at Tulane University in New Orleans; at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md.; around college-campus rich Cambridge, Mass., including the Harvard Yard and at the University of Alberta in Canada. In most cases, schools and cities have pulled the posters down, but the message has continued to spread in images and hashtags across Twitter and other social media platforms, even prompting a related Know Your Meme entry detailing its Internet origins and cultural backstory.

The signs began as a suggestion on the online chat space 4chan last month, a kind of Internet prank laced with ennui and cynicism about race and white identity in modern-day America. …

In the period just after the 2016 election, investigators with the Southern Poverty Law Center documented a surge in posters and recruitment activity by white-nationalist organizations on 150 college and university campuses. …

The sense that white Americans have become the lone group in America unable to attend to group interests shows up in those 4chan chat threads and Twitter timelines, too. …

The factual basis for claims that white Americans are collectively suffering is difficult to find. On average, they continue to enjoy better income, personal wealth reserves, health, health care, housing, schools than any other group.

White Americans also make up 90 percent of the nation’s elected officials despite making up about 61 percent of the total population.

At Concordia College, one of the campuses where the “IT’S OKAY TO BE WHITE” placards and stickers were found this week, removed them.