A Stanford student has been banned from campus a day after the university president condemned a series of racist social media posts made by the student.
Chaze Vinci, a student in Stanford University’s class of 2023, made posts to social media over the weekend depicting a Black student’s beheading, suggesting Black people are intended to be enslaved, and calling for the majority ethnic demographic at the school to start “running things.”
In an email sent to the Stanford community on Sunday, President Marc Tessier-Lavigne denounced “an ugly and disturbing series of social media posts.”
Then, amid continued backlash, Tessier-Lavigne announced on Monday that Vinci would be banned from entering campus as a “first step” to responding to the posts.
“The posts created pain, fear and anger for many people,” wrote Tessier-Lavigne. “The threatening language and identity-based attacks in the posts are totally inconsistent with what we want, or will accept, at Stanford.”
The president did not specify what other steps would be taken or how long Vinci will be banned from campus. Classes are scheduled to begin on Sept. 20.
Some of Vinci’s posts appear to interpret passages from the Bible chapter of Genesis as indicating that Black people descended from Noah’s son Ham through his son Canaan. In one post, Vinci cites Genesis 9: 25-27 to justify the enslavement of African people. “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of the slaves will he be to his brothers. May Canaan be the slave of Shem and Japheth!”
The post also shows a picture of a gorilla, a racist caricature of a Black person, and several Black students with the words “Spot the difference.”
Black@Stanford included screenshots of the posts with a petition calling for accountability in the handling of the situation.
In another post, Vinci wrote above an image of enslaved Black people, “Freedom isn’t guaranteed for the descendants of Ham.”
Vinci spoke to KTVU about the posts and explained his perspective.
“And what I’ve been trying to do is frame my biblical understanding of the world in a political context,” he said, adding, “It seems to be quite effective so far as the word is alive and active and divides the cursed from the blessed very quickly as we’re seeing play out.”
Vinci also called for Stanford’s Ujamaa House, founded in 1970 as a concentration of Black first-year and upperclassmen students to be desegregated.
“Desegregate @stanford’s racist housing,” he wrote, calling for the school to “abolish” Ujamaa.
The housing building remains Africa-themed today and houses students from across the African diaspora.
One of Vinci’s most egregious posts featured a depiction of a Black student being beheaded.
In other posts, Vinci posted images of the student, Gabby Crooks, and included a quote attributed to her calling for “white genocide.”
Vinci also included an image of a Stanford student racial demographics chart, showing Black students make up under seven percent of the population, and wrote “It’s time the majority started running things, don’t you think?”
Other images suggested the Black Lives Matter movement is “just fine” with destructive protests and depicted a university professor beside a guillotine. A petition calling for Stanford to hold Vinci accountable has garnered 3,800 signatures.
Some students threatened to withdraw over the posts. “For me, if honestly, if they don’t expel him I don’t feel safe going to school,” Jordan McElroy told CBS. “It is me or him, it is him or us, and I’m leaning to consider another school for my undergraduate education.”
Vinci was arrested last year for breaking and entering and pouring lighter fluid on someone and charged with wanton endangerment and second-degree burglary.
Students at Stanford say Vinci has grown more radicalized over the past year.
“Chaze has been displaying increasing radicalization online since mid 2020. But we were just appalled by the extent the university has let it get this far. It’s just beyond disgusting, beyond the pale,” student Dana Chiueh told KTVU.
Vinci’s Instagram account has been deleted, in addition to some tweets although his Twitter account is active.
Stanford president continued, “We also are taking other, additional steps under our policies to respond to this incident. In doing so, we will be following the relevant university processes. Many details of matters involving individual students are protected by privacy requirements. But I want to emphasize as strongly as possible that we will be working to ensure a safe living and learning environment for everyone at Stanford.”
