A Minnesota university and one of its students are facing backlash after a video showing the student making a prejudiced remark spread rapidly across social media.
The footage was recorded Wednesday outside a Turning Point USA event featuring Riley Gaines, a conservative activist and former collegiate swimmer who opposes transgender women competing in women’s sports.
The event was held on the University of Minnesota campus and drew students from several colleges. Protesters also gathered outside to criticize people attending the event.
One protester recorded a University of Saint Thomas student entering the event as another protester spoke through a megaphone nearby.
The student appeared to direct a slur at the man with the megaphone, shouting, ‘Go back to your own country, b***!’ Two male students accompanying her appeared to smile and laugh.
The man responded, ‘I know, you hate people!’ according to the video.
Later, the student noticed she was being filmed and asked the person behind the camera, ‘Why are you recording me?’ The man with the megaphone was then heard saying, ‘Look at these fat, white trash weirdos who hate America.’
The video, which was posted on Thursday by a male model named Darnell Edwards, has gone viral, receiving 10 million views in four days and thousands of angry comments.
A University of Saint Thomas student was captured on video shouting, ‘Go back to your own country, b***,’ at a protester outside a Turning Point USA event
Two male students appeared to smile and laugh after the remark, before the female student realized another protester was recording
After noticing the camera, the student looked toward it and asked, ‘Why are you recording me?’
Reposts of the video accumulated millions of additional views and drew thousands of comments across social media.
Edwards identified the woman as a University of Saint Thomas student and named her, although the Daily Mail could not independently confirm her identity. Her social media profiles also appeared to have been removed.
The University of Saint Thomas confirmed that the student attends the school but did not identify her, citing ‘student privacy laws.’
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The university described the footage as ‘an off-campus incident involving one of our students’ and said, ‘The language heard in the video is inconsistent with the university’s values and convictions.’
The statement continued: ‘As a Catholic university, we have a responsibility to provide a welcoming environment for all and do not condone hateful language being used by anyone in our university community.’
The school said it would address the matter ‘in accordance with the student code of conduct’ and would ‘continue providing support and working to build a university community that respects the dignity of each person.’
The statement appears to have followed backlash from members of the campus community. In a follow-up video, Edwards urged students to contact the university about the student’s conduct.
He also said alumni had contacted him to claim they planned to stop donating to the university because of the video.
The video went viral, reaching 10 million views, more than 380,000 likes and thousands of angry comments in just four days
The anger was also evident in the comments responding to the widely shared video.
‘The comfort she felt in yelling racist statements, while in clearly likeminded company EVAPORATED, instantaneously when she realized she’s on camera,’ one user began.
‘Not in any way that she feels remorse. But entirely in that she feels regret that she might now how [sic] the possibility of consequences for her hateful actions,’ the comment concluded.
‘Can see the fear set in as she takes an extended breath and looks down at her phone, just beginning to process what has just happened and is still happening lol,’ another comment said.
‘I was just on the phone with the dean… they acknowledged that it goes against their guidelines and are handling it,’ a third commenter added.
The University of Saint Thomas referred the Daily Mail to its public statement when reached for comment.
If you or someone you know is a student at the university and has more information about the reaction to the video on campus, please reach out to eliot.force@dailymail.com with any tips.