A student found posters bearing alt-right rhetoric and symbols outside of East Quad last Wednesday night and reported them to a Community Advisor, who provided the Justice with a copy of the poster. The text on the poster read, “Keep America American. Report any and all illegal aliens. They are criminals.” 

The poster features the logo of the Patriot Front, a white supremacist, neo-Nazi and anti-immigration group. In their manifesto listed on their website, they claim “our culture and heritage are attacked from all sides.” 

Similar Patriot Front posters which the group has posted pictures of on social media include a call to action, phone number and their website. One of the posters found on campus had “NOT WELCOME” written on it with black marker.

In an email to the Justice, Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan said three of the posters have been reported to Public Safety, but University Police have not yet identified who put up the posters. He also clarified that the posters were not authorized. The Department of Community Living must approve all posters that are put up in residence halls, and they can only stay up for a maximum of two weeks. Only CAs are authorized to hang the posters.

After making an announcement over walkie-talkies, Area Coordinator Josh Adlerman sent out a text to the CAs on call that night notifying them of a flier containing “aggressive and offensive language.” He directed them to do a full walkthrough of the area in which it was found, and if they found anything, to “please take a picture, note the location, and follow up with [him] about it. Then remove the posting and destroy it.”

“Unfortunately, such postering by outside groups looking to provoke is not uncommon on college campuses,” Callahan wrote in a Dec. 6 email to the Brandeis community. University Police will be on heightened alert due to the nature of the group associated with the posters, he added.

In a June 28 article, the New York Times reported that “white supremacist groups are increasingly trying to use propaganda like fliers and posters to spread bigoted messages on college campuses.” The Anti-Defamation League found that 292 incidents of white supremacy propaganda occurred last year.