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Georgia college student who used racial slur in social media post is expelled

"Such views have no place on our campus or within our community and we will act decisively when confronted by them," Wesleyan College in Macon wrote.
Wesleyan college
Wesleyan college in Macon, Ga.jimfeng / Getty Images/iStockphoto

A private women's college in Georgia expelled a student over offensive social media posts, including one in which she used a racial slur against African Americans.

Wesleyan College in Macon condemned the posts as "abhorrent" and said they went against the school's mission and values.

"Today Wesleyan administrators learned of racist statements and photos posted on a Wesleyan student’s social media," the school said in a Facebook statement Thursday. "Such views have no place on our campus or within our community and we will act decisively when confronted by them."

One of the posts reportedly said, “Bear down on these n-words," according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The college said it quickly launched an investigation into the posts "that led to the expulsion of the student, effective immediately."

"Wesleyan will not tolerate racist behavior in any form," the statement read.

The private women's college has about 700 students from the United States and roughly 20 other countries, according to the school's website. About 40 percent of the student population is women of color. In recent years, Wesleyan addressed its history of racism, including its having engaged in Ku Klux Klan rituals in the past, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The school issued an apology in 2017 and said it had asked a faculty historian to prepare a detailed history of the school's ties to slavery and Klan rituals, the news outlet reported.

“Our history includes parts that are deeply troubling, and we are not proud of them,” the school said in a statement at the time.

Other schools have taken action against students over offensive social media posts amid the nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.

In Milwaukee, the private Marquette University rescinded an admission offer to a student over screenshots of a Snapchat post in which she appeared to compare an officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd to athletes' kneeling during the national anthem,

"Some ppl think it's ok to f------ kneel during the national anthem so it's ok to kneel on someone's head," the incoming freshman wrote in the post, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "come at me. y'all brainwashed."

Floyd, who was black, died May 25 in Minneapolis police custody after Officer Derek Chauvin, who was later fired, held his knee on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes. In a video, Floyd says as he is pinned down: "Please, please, please. I can't breathe."

In addition, two incoming students at separate Missouri universities decided to withdraw from the schools after a video in which they appeared to mock the death of Floyd was condemned.

In the video, one girl who is held down on a couch by another girl laughs and says, "I can't breathe." Both girls appear to be white.

Mun Choi, president of the University of Missouri System, called the video "shocking and disturbing."