Students at the University of Pennsylvania were targeted by racist social media attacks
In another case of black people being targeted in the wake of the presidential election, freshman at the University of Pennsylvania were added to group chats called “Nigger Lynchings,” “Mud Men,” and “Trump Is Love” on messaging app GroupMe Friday morning. The racist messages led to the suspension of a University of Oklahoma student and a “reeling” black student body at UPenn, according to student newspaper the Daily Pennsylvanian.
UPenn, which is President-elect Trump’s alma mater, put out a statement Friday afternoon describing the actions and content of the groups as “deplorable,” “vile,” and “completely offensive.” The University said the GroupMe account that added the black students was based in Oklahoma. (As The Verge pointed out, posts on social media seem to indicate that there were several GroupMe accounts adding UPenn students.)
This was confirmed by University of Oklahoma President David Boren, who said in a statement that the school was taking “swift action” and temporarily suspended a student allegedly connected to the account, going on to say that “the matter did not originate at the University of Oklahoma, but started elsewhere,” without going into more detail.