Member-only story
Amidst the specter of white nationalism, Reno feels the Bern
Bernie Sanders’ post-debate campaign stop at UNR
On Friday the 13th, a day after the third 2019 Democratic debate, and hours after he shared an unexpected hug with a Trump supporter in Carson City, Senator Bernie Sanders arrived at the University of Nevada-Reno to speak on the subject of “College for All.”
The stage was suitably set: A cool evening breeze filtered through the quad wedged in between the mammoth “Knowledge Center” (library) and its accompanying parking garage. A crowd of about 350 people, young and old, had gathered to see the iconic Democratic socialist from Vermont.
Senator Sanders had visited UNR before — most recently, last fall, stumping for Jackie Rosen’s Senate campaign — and he’ll probably return again. But perhaps as compelling as the speaker was the locale in which he spoke, especially given the ominous undercurrents plaguing Nevada’s land-grant institution.
Just a day earlier, white supremacist fliers were posted on several campus buildings at UNR and nearby Truckee Meadows Community College. Earlier this semester, a swastika was found in a stairwell of Wolf Pack Tower, the part of Circus Circus serving as a dorm replacement for those buildings damaged in UNR’s catastrophic July gas explosion (UNR has a lot…
