A black male 26-year-old Lewis & Clark student was attacked on Friday. The attack happened 3 days after protests on the campus because of Yik Yak messages.
According to Portlant police, three people on the Lewis & Clark campus attacked a 26-year-old black male student on Friday night. Portland detectives who investigate biased crime are looking into what happened. According to a statement, police answered a call from campus after midnight.
The attack happened three days after a campus protest that was held in reaction to threatening Yik Yak messages directed at black students. Yik Yak is an anonymous social media platform where discussion threads can be created and viewed within a five mile radius. “My Herd,” which is a specific location, normally a college campus, can also be set up, and viewers can look at all messages from that area.
The victim of this attack told police he did not want his name to be released. He told police that on Friday around 9 p.m. three white college-aged men approached him and used racial slurs prior to attacking him. He was able to escape and get to his dorm. He told the police that he talked to his friends before he made the decision to talk to authorities. He was not hurt badly enough to need medical attention.
There has not yet been a confirmed connection by the police between Friday’s attack and the threatening messages on Yik Yak. 200 students held a protest on Nov. 17, via a sit-in on campus because of Yik Yak messages that threatened black students’ lives and asked for a restoration of slavery.
Lewis & Clark has a Black Lives Matter organization, which is not officially connected to the national movement. Lewis & Clark’s Black Lives Matter organization has asked students to institute a buddy system to keep students safe, taking Friday’s incident into account. According to Buzzfeed one member of the organization said she and many of the other students in the organization were shaken by the attack. The student asked that their identities not be revealed due to concerns for their safety.
The President of the Oregon State Bar, Richard Spier, came out with a statement about the Yik Yak Posts. Spier said, “we stand by students, faculty, school officials and alumni who are steadfast in their resolve to create campus communities in Oregon that welcome, value and support a diverse student body.”
