In St. Joseph, Minnesota, white nationalists have decided to subvert the phrase "unapologetically black" to serve their own agenda. According to USA Today, the city's residents have found dozens of posters around the town with messages such as "Unapoligetically [sic] White," "We Have A Right To Exist" and "End White Guilt."

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In addition to signs with race-related messages, St. Joseph resident Ray Sjogren said he also spotted signs reading "Hate Speech Is Free Speech" and "There Are Two Genders." Although the signs feature various messages, all of them have have the contain the name of the same group: the St. Cloud State White Student Union.

Sjogren noted that bigotry against Muslims, Somalis and Africans have increased in the community.

Some residents reported the posters to the police department. Police chief Joel Klein said that while free speech is allowed, the city does not allow anyone to post signs on main roads or power poles. Most the the signs seem to be on major roads, and so the chief has sent his officers to take them down.

Sjogren has been walking through the city taking down any sign he sees, whether it is on a public road or not. He admitted that he wasn't sure if this was legal, but said, "If it's legal to put them up, then I'm doing civil disobedience."

UniteCloud founder Natalie Ringsmuth said that St. Cloud, Minnesota has experienced similar postings for some time now. Ringsmuth has also noticed that the people behind the St. Cloud White Student Union have been more active online of late, and have started a Facebook group to promote their ideology.

"Those things together look like escalation to me," said Ringsmuth. "That's more frequent postings than before."

For his part, Sjogren has decided to fight the White Student Union every step of the way. "If we're silent then we're complacent," he said. "And we can't do that."

unapologetically black

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