News

'It's okay to be white' signs found across Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- It may seem like a simple statement, but stickers plastered across Cambridge are raising eyebrows and questions about the message: “It’s okay to be white.”

Dozens of stickers were posted around the city on electrical boxes and light poles.

Police say the person or persons involved committed a crime of defacing property. That doesn’t seem to be what people are at odds over.

“It’s okay to be white. Why not? It’s okay to be any color that you are,” Prachi Jain said.

If the goal of this message was to get attention, you could say mission accomplished.

“You can’t isolate statements. You can’t isolate what people put on a sticker from the whole conversation,” one resident said.

There’s now a debate over whether the stickers deserve any conversation at all.

“It seems like an intentionally inflammatory thing,” one resident said.

Police say they’re not sure who plastered the stickers in at least 25 different places through Cambridge Common and in Harvard Square.

A thread on an internet forum suggests it could be part of a coordinated effort.

Similar stickers with the same message have been in several places in Massachusetts and beyond, including at Tulane University in New Orleans and at the University of Alberta in Canada.

“We’re in a country we have to respect everybody and as soon as you say something about someone else they blow it out of proportion,” Nicholas Banten said.

Boston 25 News Reporter Drew Karedes spoke with several people who believe it should be addressed in a time where conflict and controversy have become the norm

“We just need to understand why those people are saying it’s okay to be white it’s okay to be brown everybody just feels really divided,” Jain said.

Cambridge Police say whatever the intent of these stickers, the concern is that it’s leaving a mark on public property and causing unnecessary work for Department of Public Works employees.

Officers are now on guard at Cambridge Common and elsewhere in the city to make sure this doesn’t continue.