MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Several college students are under investigation after a racist video surfaced on social media Tuesday.
The students go to the University of Tennessee at Martin and can be heard saying racial slurs in the video.
UT Martin Chancellor Keith Carver was in Memphis on Wednesday with local members of the Black Alumni Council. They addressed the UT Community via Facebook.
“I can only imagine the pain (the video) caused the members of our black community,” Chancellor Carver said.
The video shows several students standing in a bedroom laughing. At one point, the n-word can be heard, and seconds later, one of the students says, “We hate blacks.”
“This is not what we stand for,” Black Alumni Councilmember Tonya Parson said. “It is hurtful to all of us to have to see and hear these kinds of videos that are circulating against our students.”
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Andre Parker, a sophomore at UT Martin, said he knows one of the girls in the video and claims she was friendly with him when he first met her, but things changed after that.
“It seemed kind of different—the air seemed different, kind of cold,” Parker said. “But then it was one of those things when this video came out, it was like, oh, that’s what was going on. That’s what it was.”
The university said the incident happened off campus, but officials are investigating to see if any UT policies were violated. If so, the students could be suspended or expelled.
Parker and other members of the UT community are demanding the students be expelled. They said that video is all the evidence officials need.
“I know that there’s more people who feel that way on the campus,” Parker said. “I know for a fact, and I don’t want them to feel they can act a certain way and nothing’s going to happen to them.”
The university does not believe whoever filmed the video is a student.
In his address, the chancellor said he’s encouraging faculty to develop courses that address diversity.