A Georgia Southern University student claims to have accidentally sent an offensive message to her new roommate who’s Black and faulted her mobile program.
Courtney Schaefer tried sending a message to a different person but instead texted her new roommate. She wrote, “Her insta looks pretty normal not too niggerish.” She then apologized and blamed her “spell check.” She added, “I meant to say trigger-ish, meaning like, you seemed really cool nothing that triggered a red flag! I’m so embarrassed I apologize.”
However, the victim of the racist text posted the screenshots of the messages on Twitter and Facebook. One of the girl’s friends Dajah Morrison, who’s a senior at Georgia Southern said the racist slur wasn’t typed by accident.
“Triggerish is not a word at all either. The closest word to that is triggerfish. So for her to cover those things up, it just didn’t add up,” Morrison told WSAV.
Another student Marah Giddens said disciplinary action needed to be taken against Schaefer. “These things have been happening on our campus and campuses all over the country… If someone isn’t punished for their racism and bigotry then what will ignite a change?”
The university’s Interim President Shelley Nickel released a statement Friday morning and wrote, “The University shares the hurt our community has expressed following the use of a racial slur exhibited in a screenshot shared on social media. The use of such racist comments is offensive and unacceptable and in no way reflects the attitudes or values of Georgia Southern University. To be clear, there is no place for bigotry or racism on our campuses…. Georgia Southern is built upon the values of integrity, civility and kindness and these principles should be reflected in everything we do. We stand for awareness, acceptance and tolerance and expect nothing less from our students, faculty, staff and community.”
Georgia Southern is currently investigating the incident and couldn’t confirm whether or not Schaefer would be disciplined. They also could not address the resident’s issues publicly.
Morrison added, “Hopefully they’ll be professional about it… And handle everything correctly but I’m just hoping they shut that down and show the other students that we don’t play with that. We’re here to learn.”