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Ole Miss Launches Probe Into Racist Gestures by White Students

8 sources · updated 2026-11-11
University of Mississippi
Photo: The original uploader was Enjoybeta at English Wikipedia. / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · file · licence
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What happened

On the evening of November 6 in Oxford, Mississippi, a Ring doorbell camera at an off‑campus apartment shared by three Black University of Mississippi students recorded two white female students making monkey sounds and gestures at the door. The video was posted to TikTok the next day by freshman Jakiyra Metcalf, the resident whose camera captured it, and quickly went viral with millions of views. The University of Mississippi, in statements by vice chancellor for student affairs Shawnboda Mead, condemned the conduct as "deeply troubling, hurtful, and unacceptable" and opened a student-conduct investigation, while noting that any disciplinary outcomes are confidential under federal privacy law. One of the women, 18‑year‑old student Alaina Kunes, publicly apologized through a lawyer, calling her actions "insensitive, inappropriate, and deeply harmful" while saying she did not know the occupants’ race at the time; her lawyer and a source close to her say she has now voluntarily withdrawn from Ole Miss. Kunes and her family say they have received harassment and death threats, and the ACLU of Mississippi says it is reviewing complaints related to the incident.
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 8 articles

6 of 7 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.

What these terms mean and how they're counted
On the record · names a source 6 of 7
On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Alaina Kunes, Shawnboda Mead, Tasha Bolton, Ole Miss representative, Jakiyra Metcalf and her lawyer
Primary evidence · cites a document or data 1 of 7
Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: video
Credits another outlet 0 of 7
The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
Unnamed sources 0 of 7
The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
How it developed
When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Nov 9, 10:08 UTC by Breitbart, naming its source. First document in the first report, from Breitbart (video).
Not counted 1
Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out

Unpacked

The largest gap is that right‑leaning coverage omits the university’s recent history of racist incidents, while left‑leaning outlets foreground it, changing whether readers see this as a one‑off stunt or part of a pattern. The Guardian links the Ring‑camera episode to a 2014 noose hung on a statue of the school’s first Black student and to white students directing monkey noises at a Black protester at a later campus demonstration. Breitbart and the New York Post mention no prior events at Ole Miss, so their readers get a scandal but not the institutional backdrop. A secondary pattern is emphasis: left‑leaning coverage leads with the harm and fear experienced by the Black students and their parents, while the New York Post’s follow‑up story leads with Kunes having "temporarily abandoned her studies" and details the backlash and threats against her family. One side’s first question is what this means for Black students’ safety on campus; the other’s is what this means for the future of the identified 18‑year‑old. The unasked question is what specific disciplinary options Ole Miss actually has under its code of conduct for racist but nonviolent off‑campus behavior caught on video.
Bottom line

Guardian and NBC tell readers that the Ring‑camera incident sits atop a history of racist episodes at Ole Miss, while outlets like the New York Post present it mainly as a viral "stunt" by one 18‑year‑old who has now withdrawn and received death threats, leading their audiences to very different views of whether this is a campus‑climate problem or an isolated scandal.

The receipts — 4 facts one side's coverage lacks
  • The ACLU of Mississippi says it is looking into complaints it has received about the incident, indicating potential civil‑rights scrutiny beyond campus discipline. official statementin NBC News · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • Vice chancellor Shawnboda Mead publicly warned that at least one student had been wrongly identified online as being involved and urged people to stop sharing unverified names. official statementin CBS News, Guardian · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • A spokesperson for Kunes’ lawyer told the press she voluntarily withdrew from Ole Miss and was not suspended or asked to leave, clarifying the university’s direct disciplinary role so far. contextin New York Post · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • Ole Miss stated that any specific student conduct records or sanctions in this case are protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, limiting what it can reveal about outcomes. official statementin CBS News · absent from left-leaning coverage
The Left View
Left‑leaning coverage presents the episode squarely as a racist targeting of Black students and as part of a broader pattern of racial hostility at the University of Mississippi. Outlets highlight that monkey noises and gestures toward Black people carry an obvious and "racist" connotation, emphasizing the fear and anger expressed by the students’ family, who say college should be a place to "feel safe" and are demanding clear steps for "accountability". Reporting stresses the university’s duty to protect students and improve campus climate, noting both the administration’s condemnation and past incidents such as a 2014 noose placed on a statue of the first Black student and more recent monkey noises directed at a Black protester on campus. While they quote Kunes’ apology and her claim that she did not intend a racial slur, the frame centers the harm to the Black students, the historical context of racism at Ole Miss, and the involvement of civil‑rights actors like the ACLU of Mississippi rather than her personal defense.
The Right View
Right‑leaning coverage also describes the behavior as "racist monkey noises" or "ape noises" and reports the outrage from the victims’ family and the university’s condemnation, but places more emphasis on the fallout for the identified student. Tabloid‑style reporting details that Kunes has "temporarily abandoned her studies" by voluntarily withdrawing, stressing that she was not suspended or forced out by Ole Miss. These outlets give significant space to her written apology, her assertion that she was "unaware" of the residents’ race and would not have intentionally targeted a person of color, and her claim that she and her family have received death threats and harassment since being identified online. The event is largely treated as a discrete incident and a viral scandal involving an 18‑year‑old’s "stunt," with less discussion of longer‑term patterns of racism at the university or involvement by outside civil‑rights groups.
Our Take (balanced)
The left‑leaning argument is strongest where it insists that, given the well‑known history of depicting Black people as apes and the university’s own record of prior racist episodes, monkey sounds and gestures at the door of Black students cannot be separated from their racist meaning, regardless of claimed intent. That view is bolstered by the administration’s description of the conduct as racist and by past Ole Miss incidents that suggest a recurring campus climate problem, not an isolated lapse in judgment. The right‑leaning argument is strongest where it notes that the university has formal processes to investigate misconduct and that Kunes has already apologized, withdrawn from school, and is facing intense online backlash, including alleged death threats, raising concerns about proportionality and due process for a first‑year student. That perspective underscores the difference between condemning harmful behavior and endorsing open‑ended public shaming or career‑ending consequences before any official findings. The central unresolved tension is whether this episode should primarily be understood and responded to as a symptom of entrenched, institution‑level racism that demands systemic remedies, or as an individual act of bad judgment by a teenager that, while serious, calls for measured sanctions and protection from vigilante punishment.

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