BLOOMINGTON — Two minority organizations at Indiana University in Bloomington were racially targeted during a virtual student involvement fair, according to the university.
Ja'nay Coleman, a junior at IU and the NAACP secretary, says someone posted racial slurs during their virtual meeting with new prospective members. Racial slurs were also posted in a virtual meeting hosted by Curls and Coils, another Black organization on campus.
"This really sucks for both our organization because we were just trying to get our names out there," Coleman said. "So that incoming freshman know what our org is about and we can't even do that."
Students say people also interrupted the Zoom meeting and mocked the Black Lives Matter movement.
"We did have some students that did want to learn about NAACP but they felt uncomfortable so they left the zoom call," Coleman said. "With all that is going on, I think that is why people felt comfortable coming in our Zoom meeting about it and I think they didn't think we would do anything about it, like report it."
Indiana University Police and the University Information Technology Service are investigating the incident, according to a statement from the university.
The racist, aggressive action through Zoom is an unacceptable incident that is now fully under investigation by IU Police and the University Information Technology Service. pic.twitter.com/DLWFGuwjlc
— IU Bloomington (@IUBloomington) August 28, 2020
