There's a war about #BlackLivesMatter on Yik Yak after something disturbing happened on a college campus

Earlier this week, controversy erupted at the University of Delaware when students saw what looked like metal nooses hanging from a tree on the same night as a Black Lives Matter rally.

Officials from the school say the metal wires were just the skeletons of lanterns leftover from a summer party, but some students aren't buying it. Now, a heated conversation about racism on campus has spawned on Yik Yak - a gossip app that grants its users total anonymity - and the student body has found itself divided. 

In case you're not familiar with Black Lives Matter or the Yik Yak app, here's what you need to know: Yik Yak is a digital message board that allows people within a certain geographic area to post anonymous comments that anyone can read. And Black Lives Matter is a social justice campaign started in 2013 after the shooting of Trayvon Martin. 

Here's an example of some of the Yik Yak posts from the University of Delaware earlier on Wednesday. 

"POC [People of Color] still feel like they're in danger of being lynched everyday," one student wrote on Yik Yak. "But at least we don't keep them in barn house anymore, am I right?"

Here's how it all seemed to start:

On Tuesday night, as conservative pundit Katie Pavlich gave a speech on campus, students gathered to protest her appearance at the university, citing that Pavlich had previously called members of the Black Lives Matter movement a "violent hate group," Delaware online reported.

Here's a tweet advertising the protest.

Despite the protestors, Pavlich's speech went off successfully. On Twitter, one protestor asked if Pavlich could "see her whiteness."

Here was Pavlich's response. She found the protestor "hilarious."

After the event, school authorities received several tips about a possible "racist display" on campus - when they arrived, they found what looked to be three nooses hanging from a tree.

A source told Tech Insider students were first informed of the incident via an official campus alert email sent early Wednesday morning.

Here is the email in full:

UD Police are investigating a racist display found outside Mitchell Hall tonight and it is being investigated as a hate crime. Anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area between dusk and 10 p.m. is asked to contact police at 302-831-2222. Members of the community are reminded to walk in groups at night, use UD bus transportation or the UD Police walking escort service. Additional information will follow on the UD home page.

The email did not include any photos, though tweets began popping up shortly:

Students on campus immediately began discussing the incident on social media using the hashtags #TheRealUD and #TheRealUDel, which had previously been used as an organizational method for the protest.

"We protest peacefully, and this is what happens," one student lamented on Instagram.

"@UDelaware the first time in my life I was afraid to walk home by myself and I'm from the South Bronx. #TheRealUDel ," another student tweeted in response. 

As the conversation about the incident grew on social media, there had yet to be a second update from school officials. As far as everyone was concerned, the incident was absolutely a hate crime. By mid-afternoon, students decorated the tree in question with signs bearing messages like "vanquish ignorance, spread love" and "end white supremacy."

Here's where things start to get strange. A second email from the school was sent out early Wednesday evening. 

After a thorough investigation conducted throughout the night, UD Police have determined the three noose-like items found outside Mitchell Hall were not instruments of a hate crime.

Instead, the University of Delaware police determined that the hanging wires were the remnants of paper lanterns which had been strung from the tree for an event earlier in the month. ABC 7 reported the update and included the following side-by-side comparison:

 

But despite the update that officials hoped would put the controversy to rest, some students remained unconvinced a hate crime hadn't been committed.

"Let the cover up begin," this student tweeted.

As the conversation became more heated, it seemed many students were abandoning the conversation on Twitter and moving over to YikYak, the anonymous gossip app.

There, our source told us, it seemed like people were getting brave thanks to hiding behind a platform that promised they'd never be tied to their comments. Some began comparing other things on campus to nooses, like the spaghetti and meatballs at the University of Delaware dining hall, Pencader, or a telephone wire.

 

One student, clearly smug about the school's stance that the incident was not a hate crime, posted their comments to Yik Yak: 

The butthurt is truly delicious today. The harvest is good and plentiful. If getting called on panicking prematurely offends you, stop doing it.

The conversation turned aggressive quickly:

"If we wanted to hang nooses to scare people, we would have gotten rope and done so," one Yik Yakker wrote in this post. 

"I find it concerning that you are using 'we'," another Yik Yakker commented in response. 

On Twitter, where things weren't anonymous, students were expressing the idea that hate crime or not, the jokes surrounding the incident were just as insensitive and offensive as the alleged crime itself.

 

And back on Yik Yak, outright racism prevailed.

 

As social media remained a hotbed for opinions, University of Delaware president Nancy Targett attempted to bring some of that conversation out from behind the anonymous message boards by hosting a gathering on the campus green for students to come and openly discuss the incident.

While the event seemed to be meaningful for some students, others were still resistant to the idea that there was a race problem on campus in the first place.

Check out this Yik Yak post from someone who wondered why more white students hadn't attended the gathering.

"Cause we didn't do anything wrong," replied one student.

It looks like this is just the beginning of a larger - and very necessary - discussion about race amongst members of the University of Delaware student body.

At least one student at the gathering was overheard saying, "I'd rather eat McDonald's than hear #BlackLivesMatter again," according to our source.

We reached out to campus officials at the University of Delaware earlier today and will update if we hear back.