The Great Oberlin College Racism Hoax of 2013

A massive racism hoax took place at Oberlin College in February 2013 in which two students made seemingly racist, anti-Semitic and other such posters, graffiti and emails for the purpose of getting a reaction on campus, not because they believed the hostile messages. At least one of the two was an Obama supporter with strong progressive, anti-racist politics.

School officials and local police knew the identity of the culprits, who were responsible for most if not all of such incidents on campus, yet remained silent as the campus reacted as if the incidents were real. National media attention focused on campus racism at Oberlin for weeks without knowing it was a hoax.

The hoax was confirmed when Chuck Ross of The Daily Caller recently obtained police records. Now it’s out in the open. Here is the history of how the hoax developed, played out in the media, and was covered up by the Oberlin administration.

The “hate” incidents cause campus and the media to erupt in protest

During February 2013 into early March, there were racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic postings on an Oberlin message board and in graffiti and signs around campus.

The issues burst onto the national media scene when a student claimed to see someone walking in a Klan robe late at night.



Left-wing websites like Slate.com ran with the story with dramatic flair:





It turned out that the Klan sighting at Oberlin likely was just woman wrapped in a blanket, but no matter, Oberlin erupted in protest and classes were cancelled to that on campus solidarity rallies could be held.

Lena Dunham, an Oberlin grad, tweeted about it:




Dunham’s tweets were news in themselves, via AP:



The New York Times, among dozens of newspapers, covered the story, publishing photos of the protests.

The incidents were used to draw larger conclusions about society, and particularly about conservatives and Republicans, as in this column at BET.com, Oberlin’s Racism Blemish:

How does a progressive institution like Oberlin find itself in this situation? This is a student body whose members know the history and commitment to upholding a liberal, tolerant educational atmosphere long before that arrive on campus. How is it that such madness infects one of the premier institutions of broadmindedness?

The sad truth is that the infection of intolerance is pervasive in American society in the age of Obama. We’re living in an era when Supreme Court justices consider the right to vote for African-Americans to be a form of “racial entitlement.” We’re in a period where Republican candidates for president cavalierly refer to the nation’s first Black commander-in-chief as the “food stamp president.” This is the period in American history that has seen the most highly orchestrated assault on minority voting since the end of Reconstruction. And in the midst of it are Republican elected officials boasting about it.

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