COLUMBIA, Mo. – Two Missouri students who came who participated in the video that seemed to mock the murder of George Floyd have been withdrawn.
Students should attend the University of Missouri and Missouri State University in the fall before taking part in a video on social media where they seem to simulate strangulation with one another. A student is heard saying, “I can’t breathe.”
The University of Missouri, which was rocked by racial protests in 2015, immediately began an investigation of civil rights, directing one of the students to cancel its registration, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported.
“Given the similarities with the recent death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the video is both shocking and disturbing,” wrote Mun Choi, president of the University of Missouri System and temporary chancellor of MU, in an email to the campus community.
Choi wrote that he had begun meeting with members of the Collegian Black Legion and the Missouri Student Association. Black students and alumni at MU have been brought to Twitter using the hashtag #BlackatMizzou to write about their negative experiences of being black on campus.
“University leaders and I remain committed to fighting discrimination and racism in all its forms,” Choi wrote.
Missouri State University said that in addition to prospective students who appeared in the video, other students who used racially offensive slurs at a social media post also resigned, Springfield News-Leader reported.
“Many others have expressed anger and distrust in the nature and tone of painful social media posts,” MSU President Clif Smart wrote in a blog post Tuesday.
Smart said students, white and female, chose to withdraw after “recognizing the impact of videos and social media posts.”
