Not 48 hours after the attack at Ohio State University, somebody (I won’t link to their hate site) put up fliers around campus with
White People. They’re going to blame you. It’s not your fault.
and
Religion of ‘peace’. 11 Injured in Ohio State Rampage. They will ignore his religion. They will ignore his origin. They will blame you.
My colleagues tore these down as fast as they could find them. So we see that people are already attempting to use this incident, even before the motivations of the attacker have been explored, to foment hatred against Muslims and against Somalis.
It is some comfort to me in these times that one of the people injured on Monday, William Clark, said about the attacker, Abdul Razak Ali Artan:
He was an OSU student. As a faculty member here for 35 years, I am only too aware of things that drive students to do things they wouldn't ordinarily do.