While hundreds of students have taken over college campuses in protest over the Israel-Hamas conflict, racism has still found its way to rear its ugly head.
A demonstration over the treatment of Palestinian citizens on May 2 at the University of Mississippi evolved from a protest with 30 students demanding a cease-fire in Gaza into a display of racism by counterprotesters aimed at a Black female student.
One white college student has faced punishment for his role in the incident, but some say that’s not enough.
A viral video shows a large group of young white men jumping up and down and yelling racist and demeaning insults at a young Black woman, including calling her “fat” and “Lizzo,” a reference to a heavyset African-American music artist known for promoting body positivity.
While the woman was identified by several media outlets as a pro-Palestine supporter, many of the men were dressed in American flag colors and patterns and didn’t seem to outwardly show support for either Israel or Hamas. Some carried American and Trump flags.
One student, identified by the Oxford, Mississippi, school’s NAACP chapter as James “JP” Staples, took the overt behavior a step further by making monkey chant noises at the woman, Jaylin R. Smith, as she fought to stand up against the verbal attacks.
“One thing that will never break me is people taunting me or making monkey noises at me,” Smith, a graduate student, told CNN.
Staples was expelled from his fraternity on Sunday as Phi Delta Theta, the organization seemingly distanced itself from the episode.
“After reviewing the incident, it was determined that the individual’s behavior was unacceptable. The action in question was offensive, outside the bounds of this discourse, and contradictory to our values,” the fraternity said in a statement.
However, the UM NAACP is requesting that all the counterprotesters involved in the confrontation be barred from attending the university.
“UM NAACP requests the expulsion of individuals involved in the use of racial slurs, intimidation, and vulgar behavior exhibited during Thursday’s protest,” the organization wrote on Instagram.
Several critics have also taken to social media to call on the educational institution to do the same. In addition, an online petition was launched and has garnered nearly 4,000 signatures as of Tuesday night.
“James Pearson Staples is a student at Ole Miss. He’s a pathetic picture of racism! Expel him now,” one user wrote.
Some social media users suggest that Black athletes boycott the school.
University officials say they have launched a conduct probe into one student and are still determining whether additional investigations are necessary.
“We will not tolerate discrimination, intimidation, harassment or bias of anyone in our campus community. To be clear, people who say horrible things to people because of who they are will not find shelter or comfort on this campus,” UM Chancellor Glenn F. Boyce wrote in a letter to students, per several reports.
The University of Mississippi is no stranger to overt racism. The school only banned the Confederate symbol from being displayed at its sporting events in 2015; after all, it was included in the state’s flag before it was redesigned in 2021.
Ironically, eight Black protesters were expelled 54 years ago after a protest ended with some in the group burning a Confederate flag.
When the school tried to desegregate the population in 1962 by bringing its first Black student, white students resisted so much that it required the deployment of over 3,000 federal soldiers.
A congressman from Georgia, Michael Allen Collins Jr., is also facing the threat of a congressional probe after sharing the video of the confrontation on X with the caption: “Ole Miss taking care of business.”
“Black America refuses to accept blatant racism from any representative sworn to uphold our constitution,” NAACP spokesperson Alicia Mercedes said in a statement to The Hill “Representative Collins’ decision to publicly condone, and perhaps even celebrate these racist taunts is not only shameful, but also reprehensible.”
The national civil rights organization has sent a letter to Collins’ colleagues demanding an Ethics Committee investigation.
As for Smith, she said she’s not going to let the verbal abuse she endured break her spirit.
“The monkey gestures – and people calling me fat or Lizzo – didn’t hurt my feelings, because I know what I am. I am so confident in my Blackness. I am so confident in my size, in the way that I wear my hair, and who I am. They do not bother me. If anything, I felt pity for them for how stupidly they acted,” Smith told CNN.
