An anti-Semitic Valentine’s Day card caused controversy Wednesday when it was given to a group of Central Michigan University students by a member of the university’s chapter of College Republicans.
The card — which contained a picture of Adolf Hitler and a pun referencing the Holocaust — was not meant for the students who received it, according to a post from the group’s Facebook page.
“At tonight’s College Republican meeting, we had a Valentine’s Day party, in which each member decorated a bag and other members placed valentine’s inside of others’ bags,” the post read. “Unfortunately, a very inappropriate card was placed into a bag without other members’ knowledge. A bag was then given away, once again without members’ knowledge of its contents.”
Mackenzie Flynn, the president of the CMU chapter, said the card was part of a page of memes to be cut out, and that a member gave other students the bag containing the card because he didn’t like the candy that was also inside the bag.
“While still not appropriate, I want to clear up that they did not create it themselves,” she said in an interview with Central Michigan Life, the university’s student publication.
The card is one of many recent incidents at colleges and universities around the country involving racism and anti-semitism.
At the University of Michigan, racist and anti-Semitic emails were sent to engineering students, leveling death threats toward African-American and Jewish students. Last semester, posters promoting white supremacy were put up on campus.
When a protest formed early Wednesday morning outside of President Mark Schlissel’s house shortly after the emails were sent, Schlissel addressed the protesters, condemning the emails but saying he didn’t know how to prevent the situation in the future.
“We’ll keep working together on this, because I really do need your help and I can’t promise you the world’s going to be better tomorrow or next week,” he said. “I wish I could. I’m just as powerless as you to stop people from doing these things.”