Ole Miss Investigates Video of Students Making Monkey Gestures at Black Students' Apartment Door

The University of Mississippi is investigating a doorbell-camera video that shows students making monkey sounds and gestures outside an apartment door where Black students live. The Ring footage is timestamped Nov. 6 at about 8:37 p.m. Student Jakiyra Metcalf posted it to TikTok on Saturday with the caption asking what people had to say about it. She wrote that the women were her upstairs neighbors. The clip shows one woman beating her chest and making monkey noises, and a second making similar sounds and jumping. A third walks past without joining in. Breitbart reported more than 11 million views. The mother of one of the Black students living there posted a Facebook video saying the administration had been informed. She said, "We want answers." A university spokesperson condemned the "offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable" behavior and said the appropriate offices were investigating. The spokesperson added that student conduct records and any discipline are protected by the federal student privacy law FERPA. Vice chancellor of student affairs Shawnboda Mead then told students, faculty and staff the behavior was "deeply troubling" and did not reflect the university's values.

Left-leaning CBS News leads with the investigation and the institutional response. It quotes the spokesperson and Mead at length, including the FERPA caveat, and relays WREG's account that the footage came from a freshman's camera. In CBS's account, the freshman has two Black roommates, and two girls are shown. Right-leaning Breitbart and the Daily Mail lead with the footage itself and its spread online. They name Metcalf as the poster, give the timestamp, describe three white women, and use words such as "outrage" and "shocking." The Daily Mail adds that one woman smiled and another laughed. Breitbart quotes the mother's Facebook message. The excerpts of both right-leaning articles do not include the university's statements. Both sides agree on the date, the monkey gestures and the investigation's premise. They differ on who is named, how many women are described, and whether officials or the video get top billing. Alternative and independent outlets had not reported this story at the time of writing, while left- and right-leaning outlets had.