In recent years and especially since the death of George Floyd, high school and college students have been using social media to expose everyday racism they confront at school. A recent story in The New York Times about two high school graduates from Virginia was particularly dramatic.
According to the Times, one student, Jimmy Galligan, shared in June 2020 a three-second Snapchat video of his classmate, Mimi Groves, using a racial slur. Groves had first sent the video message to a friend in 2016 when she was 15 and had just gotten her learner’s permit. In the video, she looks into the camera and says, “I can drive, [racial slur].”
Someone shared it with Galligan a few years later, when both he and Groves were seniors. Galligan kept the video and after Groves had chosen a college, he posted the video publicly. As he later described it to the Times, the video “taught someone a lesson.”
Shortly after Galligan posted the video, Groves’ acceptance to the University of Tennessee’s cheer team was revoked. According to the Times, under pressure from their students, alumni and the public, the university encouraged Groves to withdraw, which she did.
Read the complete article at: CNN
