A series of racist social media images has students at a metro Atlanta university worried for their safety, prompting officials to investigate.
Kennesaw State University confirmed it’s looking into the offensive posts, which began circulating among students earlier this week, Atlanta station WSB-TV reported. One of the photos features an African-American student with the caption, “Need to call the Klan for this issue.”
A KSU students said a classmate forwarded the images to her after he was included in a racist social media group chat. (Image courtesy of @chasmine_alyse / Twitter)
The images have rocked the campus community, and some students said they no longer feel safe.
“Can I go to class and not worry about a member of the Klan? Making a remark like that. You don’t know,” a KSU student who first made the photo public on Twitter told the station. “You never know what can happen when you walk out of that classroom.”
The student, who asked to remain anonymous, said a classmate forwarded the photos to her after he was included in a racist, expletive-laden group chat on the popular GroupMe phone app. Screenshots from the chat revealed anti-Semitic imagery and also included a message thread titled, “F-gs Suck Black C–k In This Chat of Homies N—-r C–t F–k.”
Kennesaw state keeps getting my post removed every time I tag them. pic.twitter.com/jVjMmUfe9a
— Chasmin McKeever (@chasmin_alyse) February 10, 2019
The n-word was also posted several times.
“You never know if there could be action behind that,” she added.
Rumors of a potential gunman targeting Black students on campus also sent the university into chaos Tuesday night, according to several Twitter posts. KSU’s Emergency Management account confirmed there were “no credible threats” to the campus; however, students blasted officials as not taking the situation seriously enough.
“Be careful on the kennesaw campus of KSU today; apparently a group of racist assholes are threatening to shoot black students,” one Twitter user wrote. “@kennesawstate has failed to warn their students so please spread the word and be safe everyone.”
“#KSUPolice do not do their jobs, and Kennesaw State University shows their apathy towards all of our safety when they send us cryptic text messages and don’t alert us of active threats until after it’s already ‘handled.’ @kennesawstate YOUR STUDENTS DESERVE BETTER,” another chimed in.
One student wondered, “How are y’all going to notify us at 3 am about a bear minding its business, but not let us know that someone is threatening to shoot black students on campus? @kennesawstate”
The university issued a statement regarding the racist posts, saying, “Kennesaw State condemns discrimination in any form. We are aware of the circumstance on Twitter.”
It continued: “We launched an investigation as soon as we became aware of this on Sunday and are continuing to investigate.”
*Editor’s Note: Tanasia Kenney is an alumna of Kennesaw State University.
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