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A viral video showing a University of Mississippi student making ape-like noises and gestures towards a Black student participating in a pro-Palestinian protest has resulted in him being kicked out of his fraternity.
The footage was taken on Thursday during an encounter between a group of around 30 pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrating on the Ole Miss campus and a much larger group of mostly white men who were counterprotesting, according to the Mississippi Free Press. The counter-protesters outnumbered the pro-Palestinian organizers by about 10 to one, the outlet estimated.
In the video, a Black protester steps out from behind a metal barricade to talk to a large group of counter-protesters and is met with jeers from the crowd. In the bottom right of the frame, a student in a blue shirt can be seen hooting and jumping from foot to foot, mimicking a monkey, in front of the Black protester.
As police stepped in to separate the single protester from the large crowd, the counter-protesters began chanting, “Lock her up. Lock her up.”
The footage was amplified when Republican lawmaker Mike Collins, from Georgia, reposted the video with the caption “Ole Miss taking care of business,” seemingly in support of the counterprotest. Three days later, the representative walked back his comments and acknowledged the “potentially inappropriate behaviour” seen in the video.
The original video was shot by Ole Miss journalism student Stacey J. Spiehler.
On Sunday, the Phi Delta Theta fraternity announced that it was aware of the video and had kicked out the student in question, who has not been named. He has also not commented publicly about the incident.
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“The racist actions in the video were those of an individual and are antithetical to the values of Phi Delta Theta and the Mississippi Alpha chapter. The responsible individual was removed from membership on Friday, May 3,” the statement read.
On Monday, the fraternity’s release was updated to remove the mention of racism, and instead called the student’s behaviour “unacceptable.”
“The action in question was offensive, outside the bounds of this discourse, and contradictory to our values,” the new statement reads. “In partnership with local alumni, undergraduate leadership, and the university, disciplinary due process was initiated which resulted in the removal of membership.”
It wasn’t immediately clear why the statement was updated.
The national president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) took notice of the video and was one of many to criticize Collins for sharing it.
“A Black Woman was victim to pandering, racist remarks and gestures, and hateful speech with the hope of breeding fear, isolation, and retreat,” Derrick Johnson wrote Saturday on X (formerly Twitter). “She marched forward anyway. I hope racists like Mike Collins took note of that as well.”
Collins backtracked on his earlier comments on Monday, writing: “I understand and respect the feedback that’s been shared regarding a single individual during the Ole Miss protests. If that person is found to have treated another human being improperly because of their race, they should be punished appropriately, and will hopefully seek forgiveness.”
“Frankly, I did not believe that to be the focal point of the video shared at the time, but I recognize that there certainly seems to be some potentially inappropriate behavior that none of us should seek to glorify.”
University of Mississippi chancellor Glenn Boyce said the school is committed to people expressing their views. He said some statements made on campus Thursday were “offensive and unacceptable.” In another statement Friday, Boyce said one “student conduct investigation” had been opened and university leaders were “working to determine whether more cases are warranted.”
“To be clear, people who say horrible things to people because of who they are will not find shelter or comfort on this campus,” he said.
A video shared by journalist Ashton Pittman of the Mississippi Free Press showed counter-protesters also yelling sexist and fatphobic epithets towards pro-Palestinian protesters.
Nobody was arrested during the demonstration at the University of Mississippi, as a wave of pro-Palestinian protests sweeps U.S. and Canadian university campuses. According to a count by The Associated Press, more than 2,400 arrests have occurred on 46 U.S. university or college campuses since April 17 during demonstrations against the conflict.
— with files from The Associated Press
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