In August, someone painted several racist and offensive slurs on a building at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. At the time, local news outlet WSB-TV reported that the “Emory Autism Center has become the target of several crimes, including burglary and vandalism, including graffiti of racial slurs and swastikas.”
A police report for the incident also mentioned that vending machines in the building were vandalized, along with a glass door that had been shattered. A large rock was found several feet away.
“The area where racial slurs were reportedly written along the walls are near the workspace occupied by two African-American women and a swastika was in a hallway near a Jewish man’s office,” WSB-TV reported.
In a statement, Emory University spokesperson Laura Diamond told the outlet: “These acts of racism and antisemitism are painful for all of us at the EAC and in the Emory community. They will not be tolerated, and every effort will be made to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
A week later, the perpetrator was charged with burglary second degree by Georgia law enforcement and named as Roy Lee Gordon, Jr. The College Fix reported on August 25 that the school was refusing to reveal Gordon’s race and that he wasn’t charged with a hate crime even though such slurs would typically lead to such a charge.
The Fix reported that the school refused to provide a copy of the police report, arrest warrant, or photos of the alleged vandalism.
When Gordon was arrested on August 20, Emory released a much more sanitized statement, saying, “Emory University is committed to fostering a safe and inclusive campus for all faculty, staff, students, patients and their families.”
Gordon was arrested on September 22 following the warrant issued a month earlier. Emory released another statement about the matter, identifying Gordon as “a former part-time/temporary employee at Emory.”
This statement also addressed the racism inherent in Gordon’s act, without mentioning his race, leading many more to question whether the perpetrator was white, something that certainly would have been mentioned if it were the case.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution finally obtained an arrest photo of Gordon, showing he is black. The College Fix noted that the school knew this but refused to say so for more than a month. The school told the Fix on Thursday: “Unfortunately, we are unable to share any additional details beyond what is in the statement.”
“Emory is unable to share personnel information and can’t speculate his intentions,” Emory spokesperson.
This is the latest hoax in a series of campus hate crime hoaxes that turned out to be perpetrated by members of the targeted group. As The Daily Wire reported in June, a former student at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin, who set a fire in a residence hall and claimed it was a hate crime against her was charged with a misdemeanor count of negligent handling of burning materials. That same month, a black student at Wayne State University in Michigan claimed she was racially targeted by other students who allegedly threw eggs at her door. Police said she threw the eggs herself.