Students at Florida International University say they’re disappointed and disturbed after seeing racist and anti-Semitic messages from a WhatsApp group chat allegedly involving a group of conservative FIU students.
“As a black person myself, honestly, it kind of hurts to see. You don’t really expect people like that to still be around, especially this close to home,” said Nate Justine, a junior at FIU.
“Being like an international school, where there’s a lot of diversity, I mean, I feel that it was kind of out of the pocket for them like to create that, you know, like knowing that the school is based on a mostly diverse background,” said Glendon Ingraham, a freshman at FIU.
According to our partners at the Miami Herald, the chat contained hundreds of uses of the N-word, antisemitic and homophobic slurs, and nazi references.
Several members of FIU’s Turning Point USA chapter, the organization started by late conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, were also reportedly involved in the chat.
“His whole thing was about like following the principles of Christ and stuff like that, so for his followers or the people like who were a part of his organization to say stuff like that is like weird; it throws me off a little bit,” said Ingraham.
FIU’s TPUSA President Ian Valdez stepped down following the leak of the group chat.
The chapter is posting on Instagram that they are “reconstituting” their leadership team.
For those involved in the chat, many of their peers think consequences should happen swiftly.
“I think there should actually be an expulsion,” said Mateo Smith, a Junior at FIU.
“I really hope that FIU takes the steps necessary to handle this accordingly cause it’s very deeply disturbing to me and a lot of the minority population at the school,” said Charlyn Adam, a freshman at FIU.
Tuesday night, FIU president Jeannette Nunez released a statement about the incident, saying in part:
“The Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity have reviewed more than 1,200 pages of evidence and initiated charges based on violations of the university’s non-discrimination regulation and the Student Code of Conduct.”
=In her statement, Nunez says William Bejerano, an individual who is not affiliated with FIU but was allegedly part of the chat, has been trespassed from the campus.
It’s still unclear what will happen to the students who were allegedly involved in the chat.
