'OK to be white' fliers show up at NCSU, Duke

Fliers bearing the phrase "It's okay to be white" were found Thursday at North Carolina State University and Duke University, officials said.

The phrase has been linked to white supremacist groups, and similar fliers have been found at other college campuses around the U.S. in recent days.

The phrase originated with the KKK and David Duke.

N.C. State officials said fliers were taped to poles and walls around campus, and they were disconcerted that the leaflets appeared on the same day the university renamed the University College Commons Building for Irwin Holmes, one of the school's first black graduates.

Although it's unclear if the fliers were connected to the building dedication, N.C. State Chancellor Randy Woodson said the two events show how far the nation has come and how far it still has to go.

"There is still a lot of progress that we need to make, and clearly that does not reflect our values, but that is another example that, as a country, we still have work to do," Woodson said.

Some N.C. State students were upset the fliers appeared on their campus.

"It is people with small minds that don't think," Morgan Ashley said.

"There is no place for that anymore, people doing that. It's just ignorant," Marcellus Spell said.

At Duke, a pumpkin with a swastika carved into it also was found near Gilbert-Addoms dormitory.

"We denounce these actions for what they are: cowardly acts of vandalism that are intended to intimidate, but instead remind us that we are, and will continue to be, a strong inclusive community that stands up to hate and bigotry," Michael Schoenfeld, Duke’s vice president for public affairs and government relations, said in a statement.

The Duke Student Government Senate passed a resolution Wednesday night urging university administrators to implement a policy against hate and bias and to define acts of hate and bias, according to the Duke Chronicle.

Holmes, who graduated from N.C. State in 1960 with a degree in electrical engineering, also was among the first black athletes to participate in an ACC-sponsored event.

"I may have contributed something to N.C. State, but N.C. State has contributed a whole lot to me," he said.

Because of people like Holmes, students said, the school is a better place.

"I don't see any real rifts between anyone or anything like that. It is a really cohesive community here," Ashley said.