GREENWICH VILLAGE — A "white student union" Facebook group purporting to have been formed by NYU students was published online Friday.
The "illegal" Facebook page describes the group as "a community for NYU students of European descent."
"Let your voice be heard!" the description reads.
The Facebook group comes on the heels of similar ones claiming to be affiliated with schools around the country, and follows calls within the online white supremacist community to form such organizations, even for universities you do not attend.
A post on Medium says the groups are "all fake" and points out that some groups at different schools bear the same descriptions.
"An anonymous person or group has started an unauthorized and highly objectionable 'NYU White Student Union' Facebook page; these kinds of pages have cropped up at a number of universities that have sought to have a real dialogue about race and inclusion," said university spokesman John Beckman. "There is no such organization as this at NYU, the Facebook page is using NYU's logo illegally and without permission, and we have contacted Facebook to demand the NYU logo be removed. We reject — and we call on others to reject — efforts such as this to derail or distort candid, thoughtful discourse on race."
The page has been flooded with comments from NYU students and others condemning the group.
"A white student union should be devoted to undoing white racism not 'celebrating whiteness.' The KKK celebrates whiteness," one Facebook user writes.
"You place yourselves in a deeply troubled tradition with your celebration of whiteness. You cannot celebrate whiteness without denigrating others. Be honest."
The Facebook page creator responded: "I see that you want to erase the identity of white people and associate their entire existence with racism. This is why our organization is needed."
A message to the group's moderator did not immediately receive a response, but The Tab claims to have interviewed the creator, who identified him or herself as "a liberal arts undergrad student at the College of Arts and Science... from the suburban New Jersey area, Montclair specifically."
The alleged NYU student claims to be receiving death threats since forming the group.
The New York Daily News wrote about the page early on Monday.
