SnapChat shows dark underbelly of racism, ignorance

Racist SnapChat epidemic or just “uneducated privilege?”

It’s been just over a week since a student at Kansas State University was expelled for posting a racist photo on her SnapChat story. The image shows a student and her friend wearing charcoal masks with the caption, “feels good to finally be a n***a.”

Now, the University of North Dakota is dealing with a similar incident – times two. The first image was brought to light on Tuesday by Facebook user, Ngale Queen. The image shows three white students posing for a photo with the caption, “locked the black b*tch out.”

Queen took to social media enraged, saying her friend allegedly left her cell phone in her room when the three students took the photo and posted it to her story. According to Queen, her friend was unaware the photo had been posted until a mutual friend notified her. In her post, Queen calls out the University of North Dakota, demanding action against the students.

“‘Locked the black b*tch out’ would definitely insinuate racism in my mind,” said Lexi Byler, president of the Black Student Union at MSUM. “Especially when you know they’re calling her a b*tch, there’s nothing positive about that. If you think about it, her being black has nothing to do with that situation, they didn’t have to say “the black b*tch,” they brought race into it and there was a negative connotation to it. So it definitely seems racist.”

UND police say a harassment report was made to them by the student involved, and another person. Officials say they are still trying to figure out whether the SnapChat was sent as a joke or harassment.

“Someone got hurt by this situation, an entire race was targeted, and that isn’t OK; regardless of whether or not it was a joke,” said Brooke Olson, a junior at UND.

Less than 24 hours later, a second image surfaced. The photo was also posted to SnapChat, it shows four white people wearing black facial masks with the caption, "Black Lives Matter."

Mark Kennedy, president of the University of North Dakota said in a statement that he is, “appalled that within 48 hours two photos with racially-charged messages have been posted on social media and associated with the UND campus community. It is abundantly clear that we have much work to do at the University of North Dakota in educating our students, and the entire university community on issues related to diversity, inclusion, and respect for others.”

Kennedy added that both the UND Police Department and the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities are investigating the two incidents.

“The first photo made me really mad, and honestly pretty embarrassed,” said Olson. “I think initially I was really surprised, more so by the second one surfacing after the initial outcry of the first one. I was like, are you kidding me? People are saying the first one was not OK, and then more people do the same thing?”

Byler says while she was disappointed to see the photos, it wasn’t a shock.

“I wish I could say I was surprised, but I wasn’t,” said Byler. “I’ve seen so many examples of things similar to that, not even just recently, but in the past years. It’s crazy to me that people will claim that racism doesn’t exist anymore, but this stuff happens a lot; whether it’s on SnapChat or not, there’s people’s tweets that I see, and posts on Facebook that are just racist.”

On UND’s campus, many students were disappointed by the images, saying that even though students may have been involved, it doesn’t reflect student’s overall attitude.

“When a person becomes a student of a university, at least I can say at UND, they are entering into a kind of contract that UND expects them to respect and abide by, the code of student life,” said Olson. “I don’t know if those people thought that the snaps were a joke, or were doing it intentionally, but either way someone was hurt and being discriminated against, and that’s directly against the code of student life.”

Byler says this type of behavior is unacceptable. She believes that even if your friends think it’s funny, joking about someone’s identity is never OK, because that’s not something anyone can change.

“We’re adults, and you should be able to understand what is and is not OK to say, especially regarding prejudice and racism,” said Byler. “Once you’re an adult you should be mature enough to handle yourself and to not say ignorant things like that.”

Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, Brenda Amenson-Hill says a similar investigation would take place were a similar situation to happen on MSUM’s campus.

“I would say our initial reaction would be that these kinds of posts and behavior is not acceptable,” said Amenson-Hill. “Both situations would be unacceptable but the way they’d be handled would probably be a little bit different because in the one case… you know the students who were involved and who they were targeting. So all those students would be pulled in, talked to, kind of with the due process of figuring out what’s going on and then depending on the policies and procedures action would be followed. But in addition to that because this went so public, and even now this might happen at MSUM, we would be talking about what can we do to have open dialogue to make sure that students understand what the university expects.”

Is social media causing a racial epidemic or is it just a lack of education?

“I think part of it is just ignorance, and a lot of it is privilege,” said Byler. “Because what I see is a lot of time it’s white people doing these things and they have never experienced racial prejudice and racism so they don’t know what that feels like and they’re going to be naive because they have no idea what that’s like. I also think there’s always going to be those people that are just racist or don’t care and don’t think of it from other people’s perspectives. They truly don't understand the power negative words can have on some people, and I think it can be a mixture of both those things.”

Olson agrees, adding that she believes society has educated white students that blatant acts of racism are wrong, but forgets to talk about the disadvantages people of other races, genders, ethnicities and cultures face.

“I don’t think that students, especially white students, have had enough multicultural education and training to know that this behavior is unacceptable,” said Olson. “White students experience privilege in almost every facet of their lives; from the types of books they read in elementary school, to the standardized tests they take to get into college, and so much more.”

Amenson-Hill, Byler, and Olson each say they believe there’s something to be learned from this situation.

“I think in general what people post on social media, it’s a lot different than what they would say to somebody face to face.” said Amenson-Hill. “We need to be very aware of what we’re posting on social media because anything that we put on social media can go public. I think that because this situation is out there, even though it’s a sad way to open up a dialogue, it will open up a dialogue.”

Olson agrees, adding that education, as well as dialogue, would greatly benefit UND during this time.

“I think this a huge opportunity to learn for everyone, and to advocate for social justice; because we are seeing the effects of neutrality upfront,” said Olson. “Education has been key in my own self awareness of my implicit biases, so I really think that through education UND can better equip their students to become aware of, and appreciative of, the diverse cultures that surround them.”

Byler says she’s interested in seeing how UND’s investigations will conclude because it will set a precedent for the university. She says unfortunately for the students, however, even after the investigation ends, this could stay with them into their adult lives.

“The big conversation is whether or not they’ll be expelled, however, stuff like this goes past college,” said Byler. “It’s going to affect their job opportunities, it’s going to affect their friendships and relationships with people who are not okay with this type of behavior, there’s all sorts of consequences that are outside of whether or not they get to stay in school. I think that’s something to remember for anyone who is posting things online, people make mistakes, people say the wrong things; but if you do it online it’s going to be there forever. Once it’s online people can screenshot it, they can save it, it’s out there forever there’s nothing you can do about it… for these students, even if they don’t get expelled… that’s going to follow them for the rest of their lives.”