News · Oxford
Woman in Ole Miss doorbell video apologizes, no longer a student
Photo: CrhCatracha, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
One of the women filmed making monkey noises and gestures outside a Black student's apartment door at Ole Miss has apologized, and the university says she is no longer a student there.
Alaina Kunes, 18, came forward on Tuesday as the first of the 3 women seen walking past the door in the 13-second doorbell clip. She and a second woman make the noises and gestures toward the camera in the video, which Ole Miss student Jakiyra Metcalf recorded on Friday, November 6, and shared online, where it has now been viewed more than 12 million times. The apartment is shared by Black students.
In a statement released through her attorney, Kunes said she had never met the women who live there and did not know their race. She called what she did insensitive, inappropriate and deeply harmful, and said she has apologized to the women herself. "(I pray they will forgive me)," she said. She pledged to cooperate in full with the campus investigation, and asked that her family be left in peace, saying they have faced death threats and harassment since the video spread.
The other women in the clip have not been identified. The university's investigation is still underway, days after Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Shawnboda Mead called the behavior in the video deeply troubling, hurtful and unacceptable.
What should Ole Miss do next as its investigation continues?
Source: People
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