Not everyone on the Ped Mall with a political message on Saturday morning was there to support the Iowa City Women’s March. There was also someone with plastering “It’s Okay To Be White” stickers on public property.
“A friend of mine, who was participating in the march, walked by me and he was held up this ‘It’s Okay To Be White’ sticker for me to see,” Norbert Sarsfield told Little Village. Sarsfield was also participating in the march, but had stepped away to take a photo of it.
Two months ago, someone plastered identical “It’s Okay to Be White” stickers around downtown Iowa City. The person responsible was never identified.
Sarsfield asked his friend where he had found the sticker. “He said, ‘A guy is walking around in front of the parade, sticking them on lampposts and things. So, my friend was peeling them off as he went along.”
Sarsfield’s friend pointed in the direction of Black Hawk Mini Park.
“He pointed to a heavy-set guy wearing a grey hoodie,” Sarsfield said. “I wanted to get a picture of what was happening, so I went down there. When the guy saw me, he pulled his hoodie over his face and started walking away.”
The hoodie had the image of Pepe the Frog on it. The cartoon frog has become a popular symbol among alt-right activists and white supremacists.
“I asked him what he was doing. I said, ‘If it’s okay to be white, why are you hiding your face?’” Sarfield said. “He didn’t say anything, he just kept walking.”
Sarsfield followed the man, who headed to MERGE, the coworking space located next to the Iowa City Public Library.
“There were a few people in MERGE,” Sarsfield said. “He went in. I started to follow him in, but he turned around said, ‘Private property,’ and he shoved me out of the door.”
Joshua Christain had been participating in the Women’s March with his wife, Margaret Henderson. Christain also had seen the man in the Pepe hoodie putting up the stickers.
“I saw him go into MERGE,” Christain said. “I followed him in. I saw him head to the north side of the building.”
Christain knew the layout of the building from having spent time there before MERGE took over the property.
“There are multiple exits from the building, and I didn’t want him to be able to just disappear with no ramification for what he’d been doing,” Christain said. “So, I just kept walking behind him.”
At one point the man told Christain to get out, because he owned the building and Christain was trespassing. Christain, however, knew the city owns the building.
“At another point he yelled, ‘You’re assaulting me!’ because I was following him,” Christain said.
Eventually, the man went into an empty conference room, claiming it was his office, and closed the door.
“I tapped on the glass, and told him I’d wait right there,” Christain said. “He told me I was ‘kidnapping’ him, and he was going to call the police.”
Christain didn’t realize at the time that MERGE wasn’t open to the public, or that the other people in the building had left after the man in the Pepe hoodie came in or that MERGE’s doors were locked.
Christain said the man took out his phone and made some calls while in the conference room.
One of the calls the man in the Pepe hoodie made was apparently to his girlfriend.
“I was standing outside MERGE looking through the photos I’d taken, when a young woman in a blue hoodie came up to me,” Sarsfield said. “She asked if I’d taken photos of her boyfriend. I asked her if her boyfriend was the one putting up the white supremacist stickers.”
“She said, ‘Yes,’ and that he’d called her saying he was in MERGE. She said she wanted me to delete the photos, because this whole thing was traumatic for them,” Sarsfield recalled. “She said he’s not a racist, he just likes to do these things to get a rise out of people.”
Someone also called the Iowa City Police Department (ICPD).
“I got a phone call from my wife, who was outside,” Christain said. “She told me the police were there. I spoke to them. They said they’d gotten a call from someone who didn’t leave a name saying there was a trespasser in MERGE.”
The officers also asked Christain to open a door, so they could get into the locked building. He did.
“They took the guy out of the conference room, and started talking to him,” Christain said. Christain also gave the police a statement.
Little Village contacted the ICPD about the incident. Sgt. Scott Gaarde said no one had been arrested and there were no charges currently pending, but that the matter is still under investigation.
Christain said he hadn’t expected the man in the hoodie to be arrested.
“Even with that message, and even though he was clearly trying to provoke something, it probably wouldn’t have been more than littering or minor vandalism,” he said. “But I followed him, because I didn’t want his assholery to go undocumented.”
That guy would have been well within his rights to defend himself at that point. As for “I asked him what he was doing. I said, ‘If it’s okay to be white, why are you hiding your face?’” Sarfield said. “He didn’t say anything, he just kept walking.” well duh, because as far as the loony left is concerned it’s NOT okay to be white and everyone knows it.
As a White guy, I’ve never felt unwelcome at any Black Lives Matter or other anti-racist gathering. It’s OK to be White, just don’t be a jerk about it.
Exactly! no one says it’s not okay to be white. any color you are is fantastic. but it IS not okay to be an asshole or racist. and it is not okay to hit someone following you and talking to you in public. if that was okay women would carry bats with them everywhere and walk with confidence. (bringing it back around to the fact that it was a Women’s March)
I know you and the rest of you self-loathing “white” people are lying or completely oblivious. Just last semester my school’s disgusting “newspaper” printed an op-ed that celebrated “the end to whitness” it advocated for white genocide. The headline was “YOUR DNA IS AN ABOMINATION.”
It’s quite insane how willfully ignorant people like you are.
It’s not ourselves we loathe. Many of us do, however, hate butter-for-brains white identitarians like Pepe-coke-hoodie and yourself. The human race would be much better off without you pig-ignorant bottom feeders.
Clearly an Alt Right person taking the next logical step in trolling!
You want some white whine with your eternal warmed over victimhood and cheezy sense of persecution?
You whiny little clownshoes are the biggest joke ever. You claim to be so “superior” but you can ‘t even live in world where the playing field is now level without constantly whining like little bitches.
You make me ashamed to be white.
Reichwingblowhards : Amen! I feel the same. Your comment made my day. 🙂
Apparently, he does *not* like getting a rise out of people.
great comment, I feel the same way.. to hell with racist trumptards, and to hell with the so-called president, too..
Reichwingblowhards sounds as if you are ashamed of being white, and the playing field is not level as you see it, you are just so stupid or blind to be so oblivious.
It is tho. All mass genicodes and colonizations have been caused by white Europeans lol
The victims of the Armenian genocide would like to have a word with you Leah. They’re clearly unimpressed. The Canaanites would also like to know what brought you to this conclusion, oh and the Midianites as well. While you’re at it, kindly tell us about the Dzungars, we’d love to know all about it!
Ok Leah, what about the Moors , which was one of the largest invading forces in history that took over most of Italy Europe and southern Ireland. They conquered and raped and was known for it and they was not white,
I really love how your self-described “disgusting” newsletter speaks for the whole wide world. What does that say about you?
You live in a bubble then and don’t read the news. On campuses all non-Black races are regularly excluded & barred from attending such events. In Baton Rouge & Dallas such “peaceful protests” resulted in indiscriminate unwarranted slaying of nearby whites & police officers.
I’m Asian by the way, I’m just not blind.
[Citation needed]
Sarcasm does not usually need a reference. Because it is sarcasm. Not statement of fact. Unless you are being sarcastic yourself
I feel as if blm is an racist entity and have always believed so. All lives matter period. And most so called anti- racist rallies are racist indeed, just because not allocating the white race doesn’t mean it’s not racist. Get over the whole it can’t be racist if a non white person said it. All races can be racist, just white males are the only ones who are labeled as a racist and gets paid attention to.
Okay Dang, of course as an white guy you wouldn’t feel unwelcome at a black lives matter rally due to the fact that most of them from what I have seen consisted of white people with a few black people mixed.not being rude or anything just putting my observation out as I see it.
Bullsh!t, I live in Georgia, and I get spit on regularly for being “a cracker”
As much as I think it would have been amazing to see a prime specimen of a man try to ‘defend himself – defend himself from what? A guy photographing him in public doing something he was doing purposefully in public for public effect? Cowards like you (and this guy) always are the first to cry ‘harassment’ – of course right after calling everyone else ‘snowflakes’. Truly remarkable people, the whole bunch of you.
And the repulsive right claimed Trayvon Martin shouldn’t have defended himself against George Zimmerman following him. So which is it? Is it or is it not okay to defend oneself when one is being followed?
It’s also “OK to be filthy rich”
Unless you’re black. Then we need to see some ID.
Go peddle your victimhood somewhere else – maybe PedoChan.
Found one
Oh look. You’re a coward just like he is!
Basement Nazis screen off.
That should say *screw* off.
Thanks, autocorrect.
White people are in no way oppressed or suffering any problems from being white. Everybody knows that “it’s okay to be white” is a white supremacist slogan that they concocted to sound as inoffensive as possible. What they MEAN by it is that “we white people are superior and want everyone else to die.”
That’s just fact. It’s not “loony left.” It’s truth, and you can either accept it as fact and join the fight against white supremacy or be another of their gullible unwitting allies.
That is a textbook strawman argument. You also confuse facts with opinions.
its ok to be white isn’t racist in the slightest it was born as a meme to show how easily offended you people get over something so innocent and to try and show to whites how much people hate whites its not the right nor the left its a fucking meme random guys control what you think and its fucking hilarious
Like the stickers and the clown going around affixing them to public property, this article was infantile and helps no one
That comment, though…super helpful.
LOL
Another clownshoe virtue signaling because he doesn’t want the world to see just how pathetic all of these paedo-Pepe scum are when they do emerge, blinking like the cockroaches they are, into the light of day.
“Like the stickers and the clown going around affixing them to public property, this article was infantile and helps no one”
Oh look, it’s the “rugged individualist” who voted Trump.
And when people spray paint images on walls, bridges, etc. it is suddenly art.
“defend himself”
Against what? Having his picture taken in a public place while committing a crime? No threat was made, no attempt to assault him. He was not on private property.
He was _breaking the law_ (yes – plastering racist stickers on other people’s property is illegal) and got caught out.
He’ll probably get prosecuted for trespassing and vandalism.
Of course it”s “okay to.be white.” How freaking insecure do you have to be to event need that reassurance?
I’m so white I glow in the dark. I just have other things I’m more proud of, and I try not to be a doosh about those, either.
The slogan of “it’s okay to be white” is being called a shocking/white supremacy/racist/nazi slogan in all sorts of articles, and anyone associated with that phrase is risking their career and reputation. Which sort of proves the point.
It doesn’t prove the point. The slogan is completely unnecessary to normal white people, since white people are not actively under any attack.
The slogan was created by white supremacists to sound reasonable to the naive. It’s just their code way of saying “white is better.”
“One of the calls the man made was to his girlfriend”
Rrrrrriiiiight. Uh, she’s from Canada. You, uh, wouldn’t know her.
LOL
Context seems to indicate you’re not a fan of this guy (something we’d be sharing), but why turn to implying he’s straight to put him down?
OMG how can trolls be so stupid. They’re saying he’s unattractive on the gross outside and the gross racist inside, so it’s unlikely any woman would agree to being called his girlfriend. Not straight shaming, just Nazi shaming dude.
Uhh female engineer ftw, white women can be or be more racist than white males. So there goes my the about white males being only individuals on the whole planet that can be racist LMAO
>“I was standing outside MERGE looking through the photos I’d taken, when a young woman in a blue hoodie came up to me,” Sarsfield said. “She asked if I’d taken photos of her boyfriend. I asked her if her boyfriend was the one putting up the white supremacist stickers.”
>“She said, ‘Yes,’ and that he’d called her saying he was in MERGE. She said she wanted me to delete the photos, because this whole thing was traumatic for them,” Sarsfield recalled. “She said he’s not a racist, he just likes to do these things to get a rise out of people.”
Sounds to me like this man is a top class Tulpamancer, able to make his thought forms manifest into physical reality.
Really man? Really? Both sides of our childishly divided political battlefield have their extreme members, but at least the people you describe as “loony left” are more likely to hug it out, sing kumbaya, and try to accept that it’s okay to be any color. Also, I know Mr. Christian. He’s a man of facts, reason and science. Loony is a laughable descriptor. That’s just a go to label that makes you feel justified in dismissing a set of voices you don’t agree with. On the other hand, while “It’s okay to be white” and a Pepe frog hoodie are tame on the surface, they have become overt symbols for white supremacist and neo-nazis alt-right groups. Those guys don’t exactly have a spotless history. As a white “politically independent” man of reason myself, I’d support both of those nutty group’s rights to free speech to my dying breath. You can say it, but please don’t get all bent out of shape and dismissive when someone (like me) disagrees with the hate part of the sentiment.
OMG it is NOT! ok to be white anymore. This march is about womyn! Not yo monkey white bois! Also white womyn stay out of da way. We dont need ya pink pussays!
Do what now?
This is parody.
Really bad blightbarf style parody. The kind you’d find at a Trollchan circle-jerk and vija-game boys night in.
You really aren’t very good at this.
So obviously fake, go back to your fake Facebook profile pretending to be a black American cornfed teenager, but we all know you’re a pasty, potato-fed old man out there in a Siberian hacker camp. Как дела сейчас?
I remember when I lived in Iowa City years ago, it was a place that tolerated all opinions, even the most controversial ones. The most reasonable moderates and the most radical leftists and religious conservatives could all find an equal platform to express themselves, and people could listen to or ignore their ideas as they chose. Apparently now it’s a place where a message as benign as ‘it’s alright to be a white person’ is deemed divisive and offensive enough to warrant chasing someone up and down the downtown area. I’m sure by Monday morning someone will have published his name and home address and started a campaign to have them expelled, fired, run out of town, etc.
It’s a shame the kind of place Iowa City has turned into the last 10-15 years.
Somebody already has. It’s such a shame that this *checks notes* white supremacist pedofile & convicted sex offender, known to harass women in local bars is now feels threatened after trying to mess with women & minorities 🙁
Maybe you remember when nazis killed millions of people because they didn’t like their ethnicity and for other reasons which are too tiresome (and completely without justification) to even go into here.
Those people don’t get a platform. That’s just the way it is. If you don’t like it, stay home and let the politically conscious sort this out.
Continue defending Pedophile Racists because you don’t do your research. It’s a shame what “conservatives” have turned into these last 30 years.
Facts do matter, pal. The facts are that this “It’s okay to be white” campaign is a white-supremist troll baiting that 4chan whipped up. You fell for it and now you’re defending a KNOWN SEX OFFENDER and overt racist. Good Job. Now go sit in the corner.
That’s a sweet comment, but maybe you should look further into what those stickers actually mean…
Those stickers mean that “it’s okay to be white”. YOU still have to explain how that is a bad thing.
This is this human being. He used to stalk women at the bars with a cat that he calls bait and is a garbage person http://www.iowasexoffender.com/registrant/19236
And the people who came here to defend him are garbage as well. It’s not OK to be white trash.
Late to the party here. How did you connect the troll at the Women’s March with the sex offender? Just curious.
OMG you guys it gets SO much better. The pepe knuckledragger? He’s a pedo!
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca8/10-1789/101789p-2011-02-25.html
It turns out that the they’re so concerned for “the future of the white children” for the same reasons that some hunting enthusiasts support Ducks Unlimited.
RQH
isn’t it discrimination when you dismiss the idea of an indiviual just because he’s this or that?
the catholic pope appeals to the non-use of condoms, isn’t that more threatening to a desease-infected society than a guy posting stickers about his colors??
altho hes sex offender, etc, he’s still a person and still has his rights, am i wrong? or should he be persecuted for the rest of his life over some mentally disturbed matters? if hes still loose doesnt that mean that your JUSTICE doesnt consider him dangerous anymore? Social Justice = mentally perturbed group of people that think their opinion is over all laws SOLELY because they are majority?! Ignorants ….
and y’all about tolerance, but in the end just talk sh** and dictate about everything and everyone… i shall pray for you
You’re trying to defend a known sex-offender. a Pedophile at that. Goo job, Tom.
He absolutely has his rights, free speech and otherwise.
But freedom of speech is not freedom from responsibility and consequences.
He has the freedom to go be a piece of literal garbage out in public, and be publicly ridiculed for being said piece of garbage, which is totally happneing right now on the internet and its amazing. Way to pick the worst town in Iowa to try and be a racist scumbag in.
Exactly.
He can say and do whatever he wants (within reason). But he had better be prepared for gratuitous derision, and worse.
I have the right to ridicule YOU for being a shithead liberal. It IS okay to be white, if you disagree then you ARE a racist. How would you like it if I told your employer that you are a racist? How would you like it if you lost your job for being racist? Because you ARE a racist, even if you try to deny it, you might get away with it for now, but modern culture is shifting rapidly, and your words will have consequences.
You seem confused. He in no way has the right to litter or vandalize with those stickers, and “it’s okay to be white” is a troll scheme based on the idea that some people think it’s not okay to be white, which isn’t true. For instance, it’s fine for this guy to be white! It’s not fine for him to: * have child porn * vandalize public spaces * accuse people of assaulting him for following him or photographing him * promote things that are widely understood as trolling or racist or both, like Pepe or “it’s okay to be white” * try to get a rise out of already emotional people at a women’s march.
Not a great citizen, this guy. Not too bright, either.
>based on the idea that some people think it’s not okay to be white, which isn’t true.
^Please clarify this statement.
I consider myself left wing, but to call them “white supremacist” stickers is silly – the stickers could have been a lot worse. I can only assume that you think it’s not OK to be white!
Idiot trolls attempts to lie.
Lie fails.
News at 11.
John, it proves the point of how easy it is to be labelled a white supremacist. Not loathing your own skin colour is now enough to be labelled a nazi. It’s way beyond silly at this point. It’s outrageous, even dangerous, especially considering it coincides with calls for violence against people who receive those labels.
This guy was identified and what do you know he is on the sex offender registry for child porn!
You’re smearing the wrong guy. This is some unintegral journalism. Those are my stickers, I have been the one putting them up for the past few months and I was passing them out at the woman’s march. The guy probably got some stickers from me.
Second idiot troll attempts to lie.
Lie fails.
Further news at 11.
^^ Meet Jonathan everyone (Sam)
I don’t think the anti-white whites (such as Aron above) realise that the people out there aren’t joking when they say they hate white people. Your self-loathing doesn’t put you on their good side.
Your talking points (trying to reinforce self loathing) are not working. Fighting racism isn’t self loathing. If a violent and crazy woman attacked someone, and I condemn her wrongdoing, it doesn’t make me misogynistic. I’m still a feminist, and you’re still stupid.
@Female Engineer FTW
The burden of proof is on you people to explain how saying “it’s okay to be white” is racist. I was under the impression that It’s okay to be any race and to say otherwise is racist. How is this wrong? Please explain. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
He’s not white, he’s Jewish. Watch him recoil now that he’s been found out.
You will only find the names of obviously middle-aged white try-too-hards defending this trash and decrying free speech. They haven’t done their research or they would know about these stickers and the grimy corners of internet that they spawned from. Keep-in-mind that this was a Woman’s march. It had nothing to do with this guys free-speech, skin-color, etc… Also, he’s a registered sex-offender. Does he have freedom of press to distribute the child-porn he was busted with? Maybe you ought to try that argument out before trying to defend his race-baiting bullshit. If you want to play for team-trash be my guest, but garbage day is coming.
“They haven’t done their research”
They have and they’re exactly like him.
“I didn’t want him to be able to just disappear with no ramification for what he’d been doing”
Good thing we had Mr. Hall Monitor here helping to root out thoughtcrime.
Also, haha at the Pepe doughboy getting scared of a couple of scrawny male feminists when he could have just sat on them.
Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences, snowflake.
And vandalism is illegal, no matter how you slice it.
“Sgt. Scott Gaarde said no one had been arrested and there were no charges currently pending”
I give you credit for your dedication to replying to every single critical post on here while calling others snowflakes.
I give you credit for editing out the end of your pull quote, when we can all scroll up or remember what we just read. It finished by saying the investigation is ongoing.
Sgt. Scott Gaarde said no one had been arrested and there were no charges currently pending, but that the matter is still under investigation.
Sgt. Scott Gaarde said no one had been arrested and there were no charges currently pending, but that the matter is still under investigation.
If there was a vandal going around putting up signs saying “it’s okay to be black” would you condone harassing him in this manner? WOULD YOU?
Bear in mind, that if you say yes to this question, I will make a concerted effort to find out your true identity and see to it that all your friends family and neighbors know what you said, that includes you current employer and any possible future employers. If you say no then you are a hypocrite.
looks like the jewish internet defence league is out in full force
Oh. White supremacist troll responds. Go figure.
SHUT
IT
Everyone knows its not alright to be white!
Who else is the left going to stand on in this day and age!
Its hardly the Democratic convention of 1924.
Now be good little Neo-Marxist’s and continue to blame those people who actually pay the bills, and mend and defend a nation that you so obviously hate, and I say that as a European.
I am white, and I am not one of the snowflakes, and you are right that lot of the snowflakes are marxists. But you are wrong that white’s defend the country. Go to a military base sometimes. I would say that non-whites are dis-proportionally represented.
I would say that you are making up statistics to suit your personal agenda.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/13/6-facts-about-the-u-s-military-and-its-changing-demographics/
It’s not “white supremacy” to say it’s okay to be a race, you useful idiot Marxist sheep. It’s a bunch of fat trolls putting up the signs because they know leftists like you will melt over something so funny. Now go back to taking selfies at your fabricated “look at me I’m a victim” sheep march, and go back to seeing ___ism and ___phobia everywhere you look
What is the Marxist/communist march protesting? The debunked wage gap myth? The fact that races who commit the most violent crime get shot by cops the most? The fact that you have to pay for your own birth control? Oh no the victimhood!!!
>“There are multiple exits from the building, and I didn’t want him to be able to just disappear with no ramification for what he’d been doing,” Christain said. “So, I just kept walking behind him.”
This was a guy who’s only crime was putting up signs saying “it’s Okay to be white”. That’s literally it.
“it’s okay to be white”
You people consider it hurtful to say that, “it’s okay to be white”. You people think that it is okay to harass people that think “it’s okay to be white.” You call yourselves “anti-racists” but you clearly have something against people that think that it is okay to be white.
I am truly unironically curious about you people and this worldview of yours. It makes no sense to me, and for that reason, I would love to learn more about it so that it can make sense to me. The one thing I ask, is could you please, just once, explain to me how it is NOT okay to be white.
I’m a very old fashioned person, I graduated from school a long time ago, long before our culture became what it is today, I’ve not been exposed to the same sort of propoganda that kids today are exposed to, I’m from a different culture. I was taught to NOT judge people based on their race and skin color. I know that today the culture is different, and judging people by race is openly supported by school, newsmedia, and people like you, but I have a hard time understanding it.