A screen shot of the Facebook group titled "Union of White Cornell Students."

March 3, 2016

Union of White Students Forms at Cornell, Aims to “Advance Their Race”

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A group of anonymous students titling themselves the “Union of White Students at Cornell” penned an open letter to the Cornell community, saying the group aims to “preserve and advance their race.”

In the letter, the group claims it is comprised of over 100 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students who have been meeting covertly to “avoid character assassinations of the press and the Black Lives Matter extremist groups.”

“The rhetoric in mainstream media and even our own higher academia has proven to be toxic and divisive attempting to undermine the efforts of the white race and even promote shaming and self-guilt,” the letter proclaims. “We are a community that attempts to recognize the many accomplishments of the white race and preserve our heritage.”

The group says it takes issues with the administration’s consideration of demands made by black student groups at Cornell, citing Black Student United’s request that the name of Cornell Plantations be amended as an example of a “puerile demand” from a minority group.

“We have observed this here at Cornell and are ashamed at the response of the University to placate these delusional minority groups on-campus honoring their demands,” the letter says.

The writers of the letter also found fault with the protests and proposals on college campuses beyond Ithaca; singling out the actions of Melissa Click, a former professor at the University of Missouri who was fired after an altercation with a student journalist; incidents of “black activists calling for the murder of white people” and “extremists” at Dartmouth “harassing students in the library.”

Speaking on their goals in creating the group, the Union of White Cornell Students said they plan to continue to unite white students at Cornell and act to counter the “nonsensical” demands of minority groups on campus.

“We will seek to strengthen our university with fellow white students and reverse the nonsensical demands of extremist organizations on our campus,” the letter said. “We will continue to meet in secrecy and going forward will open our group to new members in an agreed upon manner to maintain the safety and identities of our members.”

The group declined to name any member of their group when approached for comment on Thursday. The group’s Facebook page features a profile picture captioned with “#MakeAmericaGreatAgain #Trump2016” and has received 15 likes since being created Wednesday night.

Similar Facebook groups were also created in November last year at other universities across the country, including New York University, University of Missouri and Swarthmore College. However, according to The Daily Beast, many of these groups were exposed as fake. It has yet to be confirmed whether Cornell’s iteration of the group is legitimate.