Wednesday, September 21, 2016

College Student Expelled Over Racist Snapchat Post About Protesting Athletes

A student at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, was expelled Tuesday after posting a racist comment on Snapchat about NFL players who protested during the national anthem.

“Piece of shit niggers. Every one of them needs a damn bullet in their head,” wrote the freshman. “If you don’t like this country get the hell out.”

The university's student paper, the Belmont Vision, named the expelled student as Justin Woodard. BuzzFeed News was unable to immediately confirm that was the student's name.

The student appeared to have taken the snap Monday night, when the Philadelphia Eagles faced the Chicago Bears.

Eagles players Malcolm Jenkins, Ron Brooks, and Steven Means stood with their fists raised as the national anthem played, NBC reported.

Scores of professional and amateur athletes across the country have taken part in protesting the national anthem. They have aligned themselves with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who made headlines for taking a knee when the song played on Aug. 26 in order to draw attention to police brutality and racial discrimination in the US.

The Tennessean reported that the student's Snapchat post went viral after Belmont students took screenshots and shared the image on Twitter and Facebook.

Belmont’s statement went on to say that as a Christian institution, “it is our goal to build a diverse and inclusive community where all students feel accepted, safe and valued.”

The incident comes the same month that black freshmen at American University said they had been harassed by a group of white men in recent weeks — including having bananas thrown at them — and that students at Eastern Michigan University found “KKK” and “Leave Niggers” spray painted on the side of a campus building.