The University of Mississippi student who was caught on film making monkey noises and bouncing up and down to ridicule a black pro-Palestine activist has been kicked out of his fraternity after his acts went viral on social media.
On Sunday, Phi Delta Theta, the fraternity, released a statement announcing the man’s prompt removal from the organization.
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“Phi Delta Theta General Headquarters is aware of the video regarding the student protest at the University of Mississippi,” the statement goes on to say.
“The racist actions depicted in the video were those of an individual and are contrary to the values of Phi Delta Theta and the Mississippi Alpha chapter.”We removed the responsible individual from membership on Friday, May 3.
It was unclear whether the anonymous individual would be able to rejoin the organization at Ole Miss or another chapter in the future. A spokeswoman for Phi Delta Theta’s national headquarters did not immediately reply to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
The fraternity’s announcement came just days after the university initiated a student conduct investigation into at least one student in connection with the racist counterprotest interaction.
In a letter to the campus community on Friday, Chancellor Glenn Boyce stated that the university was aware of behavior that was “offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable, including actions that conveyed hostility and racist overtones,” though he did not specify who lodged those racist attacks.
“While student privacy regulations prevent us from commenting on specific students, we have initiated a student conduct investigation.””We are investigating whether more cases are necessary,” Boyce wrote.
On Thursday, counter-protesters swamped a tiny pro-Palestine demonstration that had peacefully convened in the campus’s grassy area. Counter-protesters ringed the fenced-off protest area, chanting “Hit the showers!” and “Your nose is huge,” according to nonprofit news outlet Mississippi Today.
A black female demonstrator who broke from the rest of the protest campsite received particularly harsh jeers. As officers carried her away, a group of primarily white men counter-protesters screamed taunts like “Lizzo!” and “Lock her up!” in a video that quickly went viral.
In his message, Boyce stated that such harassment was unacceptable.
“We will not accept discrimination, intimidation, harassment, or bias against any member of our campus community. To be clear, folks who say nasty things to others because of who they are will not find refuge or solace on our campus,” Boyce stated.
The elected authorities stated otherwise. Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) gleefully retweeted the video with the comment, “Ole Miss, taking care of business.” Governor Tate Reeves tweeted his approval, along with video footage of the counterprotests.
“It warms my heart,” he commented.
The conflict was reminiscent of the 1962 protests, when the white student body was outraged by the decision to admit a single black student, James Meredith. Ole Miss, which has long been associated with Confederate history, remained a source of cultural conflict until the late 2010s and 2020s, when students fought to remove Confederate monuments from campus that they claimed glorified slavery.
It’s a legacy that the institution, named after an enslavement-era language, is currently grappling with. Boyce, in his Friday letter, made a passing reference to the school’s ties to the Confederacy without mentioning it by name.
“While we are a modern university with a vibrant community of more than 25,000 people, it is important to acknowledge our challenging history, and incidents like this can set us back,” Boyce said in a statement.
Despite making up approximately 40% of Mississippi’s population, black students only make up 11% of the student body at universities.
