A wall with hateful messages at Nova Southeastern University sparked concern and confusion, but organizers say it had a purpose.
Spray-painted on the wall were messages such as, "You're too boring," "You're nothing but a statistic," "You're not Black enough," and messages that sparked concerns of antisemitism — "Gas all Jews" — especially due to the emotionally charged situation unfolding in Israel and Gaza
Officials with NSU said this wall was put outside the library on purpose.
“First and foremost, we do apologize. We did not intend for there to be so much confusion or misinformation being spread," said NSU spokesperson Joe Donzelli.
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Officials said the cinderblock and wood wall, which was eventually covered with a tarp, was meant to be an anti-hate wall, and a Jewish student actually wrote the words to express hurtful sentiments that had been said to them.
“We give an area and an opportunity for students, faculty or staff to write down words or phrases that might have been upsetting to them or might have hurt themselves and their family and friends or loved ones," Donzelli said. "The idea is that we then tear the wall down and it’s a symbolic way of tearing down hate."
The wall was torn down Monday afternoon and the confusion was eventually cleared up. The intention was for students to destroy it as a symbolic way to tear down hate.
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“It gets a lot of stress out. As an orthodox Jew, it’s very apparent that there’s a lot of anti-semitism going on," said NSU student Aryeh Isaac Richter. "A lot of hate in general between many groups, so to be able to smash that, it gets a lot of anxiety out of my system.”
NSU has put this wall up almost every year for over 20 years as a visual representation to eradicate hate.
“It’s extremely empowering and definitely relieves stress and is important to remove all the negative," said NSU student Elyse Macatol.
