Republican Rep. Mike Collins appeared to praise a large group of University of Mississippi students who taut a Black student protesting the Israel-Hamas war.
“Ole Miss taking care of business,” the congressman from Georgia posted on X on Friday, with a link to a video showing the racist chants.
In the video, the predominantly white male counter-protesters can be seen shouting at a Black woman standing opposite.
The footage shows the woman filming as dozens of protesters scream, “Lizzo” and “fuck you fat ass” at her.
The camera pans to show a man jumping up and down making monkey noises at her. Security guards attempt to insert themselves between the two sides, ordering her to return to her side of the demonstration.
In reponse to the video, a university spokesperson told TMZ: “Statements were made at the demonstration on our campus Thursday that were offensive and inappropriate.
“Any actions that violate university policy will be met with appropriate action,” the spokesperson said.
According to 2019-2020 enrollment statistics, around 76% of the university’s students were white and 11% were Black. More than 37% of the state’s resident are Black.
University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce said in a statement Friday seen by the Associated Press that the school had launched a “student conduct investigation” and that university leaders were “working to determine whether more cases are warranted.”
“To be clear, people who say horrible things to people because of who they are will not find shelter or comfort on this campus,” he said.
The protest was part of a larger wave of demonstrations across US college campuses in response to the Israel-Hamas war.
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Business Insider has not yet received a reply from Collins’ office to clarify what was meant by his post on X. The request was sent outside regular working hours.
In March, Collins was accused of antisemitism for remark about Jewish writer in response to a racist, antisemitic account on X, which appeared to suggest that a Washington Post reporter was Jewish.
“Never was a second thought,” Collins wrote.
Collins suggested in a follow-up post that because the account was called @GarbageHuman23, he simply agreed that the reporter was a “garbage human” because she’d written in a recent story that the US had been built on stolen land.
“I guess pointing out that a Washington Post journo excusing crime because she believes USA is on ‘stolen land’ makes her a garbage human is anti-Semitic? Y’all just see stuff that ain’t there,” Collins wrote.
