A video recorded by a Ring doorbell shows three white women imitating monkey noises outside an apartment occupied by three Black female students at the University of Mississippi. The video has sparked anger on social media and calls for action from the university.
The video was shared on TikTok by Jakiyra Metcalf, one of the residents, two hours after it was recorded at 8:37 p.m. Friday. According to her profile, Metcalf is a student at Ole Miss, class of 2030.
In the video, the women approach the apartment. One of the women enters the scene, beats her chest, and makes monkey noises. Another woman moves closer to the camera and mimics the noise. The third woman follows them but does not participate and walks away.
In her description of the video, Metcalf wrote, “ole miss??” and “what do we have to say about this ??” while tagging the university. Early Saturday, Metcalf clarified in the comments that the women were not strangers.
“We just found out they are our upstairs neighbors,” she wrote. She later said she would post an update “when we get something.”
In less than 24 hours, the video received more than 775,000 likes and 63,000 shares. People commented on the university’s social media platforms, asking for action, and an account that reposted the video encouraged viewers to contact Ole Miss’ Equal Opportunity and Regulatory Compliance office.
People have shared the names of women they believe appear in the video on social media. However, Ole Miss has not confirmed whether the women featured in the video are its students. No public statement from the university and no police involvement have been reported.
The mother of one of the residents, a freshman, wrote on Facebook that the women appearing in the video live upstairs from her daughter and her roommates. She also said that the university officials have seen the footage and called it “absolutely disgusting and unacceptable.”
“College is supposed to be a place where young adults can learn, grow, and feel safe,” she wrote.
She demanded answers from university officials. “What steps will be taken to address this behavior and ensure accountability?” she asked. She also wrote that those who see nothing wrong in the incident do not share her values.
Calling Black people monkeys and apes is a racist stereotype that has a long history and was used to justify slavery and segregation.
This is not the first time such a video has appeared at Ole Miss. In May 2024, a white counterprotester was caught jumping up and down and making monkey noises and gestures at a Black woman during a protest against the war in Gaza on the university campus. The woman, graduate student Jaylin Smith, later told CNN that the insults would not break her.
That student was expelled from his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, and the university launched a student conduct investigation. The White House called the behavior “undignified and racist.” In a letter to the campus, Chancellor Glenn Boyce wrote that “incidents like this can set us back.”
Ole Miss, the state’s flagship university, was integrated in 1962 when James Meredith enrolled amid a deadly riot on campus. Black residents make up nearly 40% of Mississippi’s population, but only about 11% of the university’s students were Black in the 2022-2023 school year, according to school data reported by The Associated Press.
