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Two Diversity Murals Defaced With Nazi Symbols At University of Iowa

Two murals at the University of Iowa celebrating diversity were graffitied with Nazi symbols, local station WQAD reported Wednesday.

The first incident was reported last week and the second on Sunday, according to police.

These are not the first incidences of Nazi or far-right activity on campus. White supremacist fliers were distributed in an Iowa City neighborhood in January. And last year, another diversity mural was defaced with a swastika, while a card promoting the alt-right was found in the school library.

The president of the University of Iowa NAACP, Santos Rodriguez, criticized the school for not doing enough to combat racism on campus.

“They want these images of people of color doing well on our campus, and, you know, we even get recruited to come to the campus,” Rodrigues said. “But it seems that it’s just all a marketing aspect because when we are actually on campus it’s a lot of instances where we are having to face down blatant racism.”

Contact Avichai Scher at [email protected] or on Twitter, @avi_scher

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