Editor’s note: Since publication of this article, sources confirmed the individual holding the sign was a Black student. 

The Manhattan chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called on Kansas State to take action after an unidentified individual set up a table on Bosco Plaza Tuesday afternoon holding a sign that read, “Say ni—, win candy.” 

“We have received several reports of this White student in blackface holding up this racist sign on Kansas State University main campus. Campus police responded and did not remove the individual. We are respectfully asking that the university take immediate action to terminate this inappropriate and egregious behavior,” the NAACP wrote in an email to the Office of the President. 

The NAACP later clarified they could not confirm whether the individual was actually a student, or what race they were. 

K-State’s division of communications and marketing responded to the email, saying they could not take action against the individual with the sign because of the First Amendment.

“At K-State, we expect our community to foster a culture of respect as we engage and interact within the university community. And as a public university, we uphold the First Amendment, which protects the freedom of speech, including speech we disagree with and find offensive, racist, derogatory or vile. The individual was in a public place exercising their First Amendment right. It is our understanding that this person was on campus for approximately 2.5 hours and only interacted with those who approached,” director of DCM, Michelle Geering, wrote in an email.

Terrell Campbell, lead organizer for Manhattan’s NAACP, said the individual was approached by students but “ultimately dodged any sort of questioning.” 

“This term [the n-word] has been used for centuries on end and historically, it was tied to the disenfranchisement, the belittlement and sometimes even more heinous crimes like killing or lynching of a particular people,” Campbell said. “So, when individuals, both students and faculty, see a sign like this, its insinuating generational trauma for a lot of people. While yes, we understand that free speech is free speech, by displaying that particular word, it’s insinuating that level of dehumanization.”

Hannah Salvo, vice president of Manhattan’s NAACP, said K-State failed to protect students’ safety by allowing the use of racial slurs on Bosco Plaza.

“I’ve had two people reach out to me personally within the past 45 minutes that have expressed feelings of wanting to transfer out of K-State,” Salvo said. “… If K-State wants to retain students, then protect those students, because I’ve got people asking how to leave.”

One reaction to the controversial sign was caught on video obtained by The Collegian. In it, a student appears to strike a male student in the face after he allegedly said the n-word to receive free candy. The video was later removed for the safety of the student in the video. 

Salvo said incidents like this will continue to happen unless K-State steps in.

“Do I support the violence part? No, obviously,” she said. “That’s never the answer. But I do think that if K-State doesn’t do something, more students would take things into their own hands, and we might see more of that kind of behavior.”

Olivia Leon, freshman in speech pathology and human development, said her first reaction to seeing the individual’s sign was frustration.

“My initial thought is not that it’s funny, just pure annoyance and irritation,” Leon, a member of K-State’s Black Student Union, said. “In BSU we talk about microaggressions, which is something minority groups experience on campus. Stuff like that, it’s sad to say, it’s not completely shocking. … I thought that it was also very distasteful for us being at a PWI, so predominantly white institution.”

Leon said she went back-and-forth about whether K-State has a responsibility to remove that rhetoric from campus. 

“We rep being like a family and we rep having that respect,” she said. “Even though it is a PWI, we as K-State rep being the friendliest college in the nation and having really personable students and that really family-oriented theme … So I do think K-State has a responsibility to foster a community where people feel safe … and be like, ‘We are going to take this down because of who we are as a university and because we care about our students feeling comfortable.’”