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A ‘fabricated’ racist note triggered a college protest big enough to cancel classes

St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. Facebook/St. Olaf College

The president of St. Olaf College in southern Minnesota says a note left on a black student’s car with racist content was fabricated and not a genuine threat.

In emails to students Wednesday, David R. Anderson said it was apparently meant “to draw attentions to concern about the campus climate.”

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Citing student privacy laws, his emails did not name the author who confessed or say whether the person is a student or otherwise affiliated with the private Lutheran college. The student body is 74 per cent white and 2 per cent black.

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The April 29 incident prompted a rally that night and a bigger protest May 1 that led administrators to cancel classes for the day.

Anderson says the college continues to investigate other reports of racist messages since last fall.

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