The photo shows the unrepentant 21-year-old grinning with his arms around a small bunch of friends.

"It was a weekend for the books with the St. Louis goys," Canepa wrote in the caption, "goy" being a Yiddish word for non Jews. The location tag was Charlottesville, Virginia, the scene of a violent and ultimately deadly clash between white supremacists, including neo-Nazis, and counter protesters.

"This doesn't represent SLUH as an institution," one former high school classmate told the RFT afterouting Morley.

Another sent screen grabs of bigoted posts Morley shared on his Facebook page, including a picture of a somber-looking old man sitting between two children, who appear to be of a different race. "when u realize what u fought for in WW2," reads the caption.

The RFT contacted Morley at his university email account and through Facebook on Friday. He later shut down the Facebook page, but he responded on email, describing himself as the victim of an "ideological witch hunt."

"My appearance in a photo with someone who may or may not have been at the rally says nothing about my opinions whatsoever," he writes.

Morley then threatened to file a lawsuit.

"If you insinuate that I hate anyone on account of their race or sympathize with neo nazis (of which there is zero evidence) you will be sued for defamation," Morley writes. "You personally will be sued and your company will be sued."

We then asked Morley to further explain his opinions and clear up any confusion. Here is his response, in its entirety:

Christ was crucified. Joan of Arc burned. Oscar Romero shot. All by their own countrymen for crimes they did not commit. Today they are remembered as heroes. Thankfully my Jesuit education has taught me to deal with the blows just like them. The guilt is on my persecutors.

Representatives of the Jesuit high school and university, where Morley says he learned to deflect crucifixion-level attacks, released statements that generally condemned the racism on display in Charlottesville but didn't specifically mention Morley.

Here's what Saint Louis University says:

Read the original:

SLU Student Zach Morley Pushes Back After Photo with Charlottesville Hate Marcher - Riverfront Times (blog)