LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) – The chair of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s College Republicans resigned Wednesday night after members of the group echoed an anti-Semitic message from rapper Kanye West in chalk on a campus sidewalk.
A tweet from the College Democrats on Wednesday showed four statements chalked on sidewalks. One of the statements read “Kanye Is Right Def-con III,” referring to a tweet that led the social media company to lock the rapper out of his account.
West’s tweet says he was going to go “death con three ON JEWISH PEOPLE.”
Other chalkings by the College Republicans referred to vaccines, gender and sexuality and gun violence in Chicago.
Because of the chalkings, Megan Pauley said she was immediately resigning as the group’s leader.
In a statement posted to social media, she said she was “disgusted and appalled to see the actions some of our members took and then posted to social media,” adding anti-Semitism has no place in the organization.
News 8 Now spoke to Anthony Chergosky by phone Wednesday night.
Chergosky, the academic advisor for both the College Republicans and the College Democrats, said the College Republicans posted pictures of the chalkings on the group’s Instagram page.
That post has since been taken down.
Another post is now up on the page condemning anti-Semitism.
News 8 Now also reached out to Pauley but did not hear back as of 10:45 p.m. Wednesday.
For his part, Chergosky tweeted Pauley was correct to object and take a stand against the post and the social media post and anti-Semitic chalkings are unacceptable.
Chergosky’s position as their faculty advisor is now contingent on whether the remaining members of the College Republicans apologize for the statements, he tweeted.
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