Students at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro are voicing serious concerns about allegations of racism on campus that have surfaced online, and the school administration has issued a statement that an investigation is underway.
In the Feb. 1 letter to the campus community, Chancellor Todd Shields characterized recent reports of racial slurs as “hateful and deeply inappropriate.”
Arkansas State University Resident Assistant EXPOSED on video repeatedly calling Black student Isabell Dickerson the N*GGER in campus dorms.
— i Expose Racists & Pedos (@SeeRacists) February 3, 2026
📍Jonesboro | Arkansas | Pack Place Building 2
The RA and another student escalated the racism on cam. She was also pressured to move… pic.twitter.com/BxbwFv05pf
“These incidents are being taken very seriously,” it read. “Let me be clear: this type of behavior has no place at Arkansas State. It is not consistent with our institutional values and the standards we uphold as an academic community.”
The statement came on the heels of a video being widely circulated online of an alleged resident assistant using the N-word to refer to a Black female student.
Isabell Dickerson lives in the dorm Pack Place, Building 2, and was “pressured” to move out because of a water leak that did not originate from her room, she wrote in a Jan. 28 Facebook post. The resident assistant and another person could be heard complaining about her on the video when he suddenly dropped the N-bomb.
“Before I began recording, he stated that I was ‘high’ and laughed with his friend about how much money he assumed I make. Once the recording started, the conversation continued and escalated,” Dickerson wrote. “This should never happen in campus housing.”
The second report of racial harassment involved a picture of a student at a fraternity with the words “N-word Lover” and a swastika written on their back.
In his statement, Chancellor Shields urged students to report inappropriate behavior to the administration via a link on the school’s website. He wrote: “At A-State, we are committed to fostering a learning environment where everyone feels safe, supported, and a true sense of belonging.”
But as the caption on the video read on X: “University investigating — but how is this STILL happening in 2026?!”
The historical significance of the university’s location in Jonesboro was not lost on viewers. One of the most heinous and infamous mob lynchings of the late 1800s occurred near Jonesboro, when Wade Thomas was seized from the local jail by a white mob and lynched for an alleged shooting of a police officer. Jonesboro maintained a reputation as a sundown town well into the 1960s.
It’s especially concerning that the slur was used by a resident assistant, a student employee who is considered a peer leader and is trained to respond to student crises and provide appropriate support.
As one person wrote on X: “Hopefully, she sues the school as well as the students and gets them expelled, at a minimum. An RA is not a random student.”
