'It's Okay to Be White' Posters Spark Controversy in the US

The 'It’s Okay to Be White' posters were discovered around Cambridge Common and Harvard Square, as well as in several other locations across the US, and were apparently disseminated as part of a campaign devised by users of the 4chan imageboard.

​According to a post at the 'Politically Incorrect' section of 4chan, the participants should’ve carried out the deed on Halloween night while wearing Halloween costumes "for anonymity," so that the following morning "the media goes completely berserk."

"Ignore anyone advocating criminal activity, vandalism, etc. These are shills trying to ruin our operation. It is pointless most importantly bad PR to do anything illegal,” the campaign architects warned, adding that the goal was to highlight the contrast “between how evil the media portrays these posters and how clearly benign they are to normies."

Media Reaction

Washington Post has described it as an apparent part of "an effort to spark racial division", quoting Renay Johnson, the principal of the Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland, where one of the posters was found, as saying that "this may be part of a concerted national campaign to foment racial and political tension."

"It seems likely that these anonymous postings, made in the middle of the night, were provocations intended to divide us from one another," Law School Dean of Students Marcia L. Sells wrote in an email sent to Law students, according to the Harvard Crimson.

Vox Populi

A number of Twitter users welcomed the campaign, some of them jokingly inquiring about why anyone would feel offended by the ‘It’s Okay to Be White’ statement.

Some users also took a dim view of the media spreading an image from the security footage showing a youth apparently posting an ‘It’s Okay to Be White’ flyer.