As usual

You might have heard about a string of vicious, bigoted statements left around the campus of prestigious Oberlin College* and the anguished response of the school. It turns out that the whole thing was well, a hoax:

The progressive school canceled all classes for a day in a mad scramble to address the alleged hate-related incidents the campus. The saga culminated in a report of a person wearing a hood and robe resembling a KKK outfit near the Afrikan Heritage House, according to Oberlin’s president Marvin Krislov in a letter also signed by three deans.

The Ku Klux Klan incident at Oberlin unfolded in the early morning hours of Monday, March 4.

Senior Sunceray Tabler reported the alleged KKK sighting. Concerned students gathered that night. By morning, they had convinced school administrators to cancel classes for a day and hold a campus-wide teach-ins focusing on racism and homophobia. The kerfuffle made national news. It prompted Lena Dunham, Oberlin alum and star of the HBO series “Girls,” to tweet: “Hey Obies, remember the beautiful, inclusive and downright revolutionary history of the place you call home. Protect each other.”

Well, the perpetrator of the incident turns out to be a guy named Dylan Bleier, who was trying to be an agent provocateur:

On Feb. 27, Oberlin security officers finally caught Bleier and Alden — apparently red-handed — in the process of their hateful message circulation. At the time, according to the report, one of the students had discarded a piece of paper reading: “Islam. It kills.”

Bleier attempted to explain away the incriminating evidence, according to the police report.

“I’m doing it as a joke to see the college overreact to it as they have with the other racial postings that have been posted on campus,” he told campus cops.

Bleier describes himself as a “atheist/pacifist/environmentalist/libertarian socialist/consequentialist.” Well, the last part is right.

*Trust me, it's prestigious, even if you've never heard of it.