by Carley Litten
In December of 2016, there was an incident concerning a student from Colorado Mesa University using a racial remark along the caption of someone else’s Snapchat photo.
The image consisted of a woman posing with her lips puckered. A student took this photo with the caption of “N***** Lips.” The photo was then shared on Snapchat, causing issues among current and past students who attended CMU.
Tony White, a former student, brought the photo to attention over Twitter with a message:
“Yo @ColoradoMesaU do you know @[username]? He thought it was funny to post this on his Snapchat.”
As other students reacted and replied to this, a response from CMU President Tim Foster was requested on Twitter.
“CMU does not condone racism in any form,” Foster wrote on Twitter. “[He] says he did not post. We will gather the facts and take appropriate action.”
Foster explained the discipline could tread on a student’s right of free speech.
“You’re treading into freedom of speech, and what can we do when someone exercises their freedom of speech?” Foster said. “There’s a limit to what we can do.”
Due to student confidentiality, Foster did not go into specifics if there was any discipline given to the student.
“Whatever the action is, is confidential between the student and us,” Foster said. “We met with him, and we handled the situation. And I think he had a good conversation with the folks down in Student Services.”
White felt the need to confront the situation to get something done.
“I felt like he thought this was funny and something cool to do,” White said. “He has done it before, and no one has confronted him about it.”
White further expressed his motive behind posting the photo with his above message.
“He thinks this way and feels that way,” White said. “People shouldn’t be surrounded by people that think like that and act like that.”
Incidents like this are not new and are happening at many other institutions.
According to Alana Levinson and Michael Rosen from fusion.net, “Since the fall semester started, it’s been one racist Snapchat after another. Snapchat is the most important social network for young people, with 72 percent of users between 12 and 24 years old.”
While some are under the impression these photos disappear, they can be screenshotted and shared which has happened at multiple universities such as Kansas State and Abilene Christian University.
These photos tend to consist of students wearing a dark facial mask mimicking and claiming to be African American.
In one instance, a student from Belmont University was expelled for posting a racist Snapchat. The consequences vary depending on how the specific university wants to handle it, as well as what was said and done by the student.
Dana Nunn, CMU’s director of media relations, gave insight on how speaking to students about these actions can be helpful.
“I think one of the things that we can do if something like this happens is to help students understand why certain language can be hurtful and offensive to others,” Nunn said.“Sometimes they might just not get it.”
Nunn clarified that disputes such as this one rarely take place at CMU and that appropriate action was taken.
