Police in Savage, Minnesota, are investigating a racist video shared widely on social media where a young girl is seen spewing hateful, racist slurs toward a Black high school student, encouraging her to take her own life.
Nya Sigin, a Black student at Prior Lake High School, told CNN that she was “shocked” by the video, which she believes targets her.
“I really couldn’t comprehend what I was listening to, it was really just a wave of different emotions. I was angry, I was disgusted, I was sad, I was confused,” the 14-year-old said, adding that she’s known the girl in the video since elementary school — “basically, my entire life.”
In the 57-second clip, a girl says to the camera, “You can f**king rot in hell…no one likes N***ers … f**king kill yourself right this time.” Another girl is heard in the background of the video — who, like the teenager on camera, alternates between vitriol and laughter throughout.
The investigation in Minnesota comes as a Utah school district faces scrutiny following the suicide death earlier this month of 10-year-old Isabella “Izzy” Tichenor, a Black and autistic student. That tragedy happened just weeks after the Justice Department publicly detailed a disturbing pattern where Black and Asian American students at the Davis School District in Farmington, Utah, were harassed for years, and officials deliberately ignored complaints from parents and students. The DOJ detailed the pattern in a report and settlement agreement released in October.
Nya said she believes the video targeting her was originally posted on social media in September but a student at her high school shared the video with her last Monday.
That night, Nya’s older sister Elizabeth — a senior at Prior Lake High School — posted the video with her sister’s permission on her own Snapchat story to expose the hate her sister was receiving. “I received many messages from everybody asking me to send them the video,” Elizabeth said.
Source: CNN
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