When someone spray painted "KKK," "Black Lives Matter" and "Murderer" on the base of a statue of a Confederate soldier at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, people took to social media to discuss the incident. Many -- including those who want the statue removed -- criticized the tactic, calling it vandalism. Some comments were quite critical of whoever wrote those things, with many comments assuming they were students.

"What's even worse that [sic] the vandalism is proof of failed educations provided to @UNC students. #UNCDisgrace #DumbLivesDontMatter," wrote one person on Twitter.

Others, however, refused to call the incident vandalism. Referring to the statue's nickname, another person wrote on Twitter: "#SilentSam was not vandalized. #SilentSam was already vandalism, disgrace to #UNC campus. #BlackLivesMatter made it better."

...

Mark Auslander, associate professor of anthropology and museum studies at Central Washington University, who has written extensively about ties between American colleges and the institution of slavery, said that many colleges have not addressed their own histories in this regard and should expect more "historical guerrilla warfare" as a result.

He said that the recent incidents shouldn't be viewed in isolation but as "symptoms" of "the vast work that remains in coming to terms with the underacknowledged histories of slavery, Jim Crow and institutional racism embedded in the U.S. system of higher education."