Awww, Valentine's Day. 'Tis the season for lovers and friends alike; full of chocolate, flowers, and cliches. But for an anonymous student at the Central Michigan University, it was apparently an opportunity to become the frontrunner for the 2017 Worst Human Being Award — and that's no easy feat.
According to the Central Michigan Life, a student-run newspaper, an anti-Semitic Valentine's Day card was allegedly handed out to students who were hanging out in the campus' Anspach Hall by a member of the school's College Republicans chapter.
The card shows Adolf Hitler alongside the words "my love 4 u burns like 6,000 jews."
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The @CMUniversity I love doesn't tolerate hate speech. This is not what being a Chippewa stands for. #WhyIResist pic.twitter.com/uIIR4pVbYf
— Autumn Gairaud (@aegairaud) February 9, 2017
This is not only disgusting, hateful, and horrifically anti-Semitic, it's also factually wrong: An estimated six million (not 6,000!!!!) Jews were killed by the Nazi regime, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Mackenzie Flynn, president of CMU's College Republicans, told the Central Michigan Life that the card was one of many that had been put inside gift bags handed out only to members during the organization's Valentine's Day party. She claimed that a male member of the College Republicans who "doesn't like candy" gave away his bag without knowing what was inside.
A picture of the card was allegedly posted on Facebook by student called Madison Rodriguez, and it spread like wildfire. (Refinery29 was unable to independently verify that Rodriguez was the first to post it, because the original post seems to have been removed.)
The College Republicans posted an apology on Facebook, saying they were not aware of the card and that they were not the ones distributing it.
"The College Republicans as an organization did not distribute this valentine. We in no way condone this type of rhetoric or anti-Semitism," the post reads. "We apologize for any offense, and want students to know that we do not tolerate this sort of behavior."
The controversy on the campus and on social media was so overwhelming that CMU President George Ross said campus leaders met Thursday morning “to review the situation and determine next steps.”
"This is not who we are as a campus community," he said in a statement posted on the school's website. "Such hurtful, offensive language, while protected by the First Amendment, is unacceptable and is not consistent with our values and standards."
Schools administrators told The Washington Post that they were investigating whether the photo was legitimate. But either way, the fact that anyone would create a card like this is frankly sickening.
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