BUZZ
Says he doesn’t know anything about history, was just trying to protest Trump
A University of Illinois-Chicago student will have some trouble hosting a bonfire this weekend.
Merlin Lu is not allowed to possess any “fire-starting materials” as part of his release from custody after he admitted to setting up a burning cross in Grant Park. The college student said he did not know the cross had historical significance as a tool of racial violence.
Lu is facing hate crime and arson charges for his cross burning, which he said was meant to protest Trump. He put a blank red hat on top of the cross to signify the well-known “Make American Great Again” hats worn by Trump supporters.
“The greatest threat to the American people is [President] Trump, [Jeffrey] Epstein, their billionaire pedophile friends, and their MAGA Christian nationalist base,” Lu told the police, according to CBS News.
He recently told NBC report Chuck Goudie that he did not know anything about the history of burning crosses.
Lu released a similar statement last night.
He stated:
In terms of the fear that I’ve evoked, I’ve already apologized, and I’m going to apologize sincerely again right now, and I probably will continue to apologize for who knows how long, maybe forever, and I’ve accepted that.
I’m okay with that, I understand that, but after I’ve come out and explicitly stated that this is not intended to be a hate crime, I believe that any more narratives to paint me as a racist, as a KKK member, I believe that’s a distraction.
“I didn’t go to college for history,” Lu said in his defense of his ignorance.
Soon after someone posted a video of the photo, Chicago leaders rushed to blame what they saw as widespread racism in the city.
“Yesterday, we were reminded that the sickness of spirit they symbolize exists not only in the pages of history but in our present day,” Cardinal Blase Cupich, leader of the Archdiocese of Chicago, said last week. “Seeing a burning cross in one of Chicago’s most-visited public parks was shocking but not surprising.”
Governor JB Pritzker also chimed in, suggesting “racism and fascism” were spreading across the country.
“The fact that it even occurred at all speaks to what happens when the seeds of racism and fascism grow unchecked in our country,” Pritzker said, as reported by the Chicago Sun Times.
“The threats are real. And in times like these, it’s easy to fall prey to despair, to think that the fight for justice is just too costly to engage in, that the mountain is too high to climb and the path is too narrow to navigate,” he said.
A University of Chicago scholar was quick to blame Trump, according to the New York Post.
“I do think we’re living in a time when we have a president that stokes this kind of thing and invites this type of stuff,” Gina Samuels, faculty director of the center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture previously said.
MORE: Complete roundup of campus hate crime hoaxes this school year
