University of South Carolina student suspended after racist photo goes viral

SC NAACP responds to racist message at USC http://t.co/iQNxtDQ7Y8 pic.twitter.com/PwuCu8eQ0H

— News19 WLTX (@WLTX) April 4, 2015

A University of South Carolina student has been suspended after a photo of her writing a racial slur on a white board went viral on social media.

The student, who remains unidentified, includes the slur in an apparent list of “reasons why USC WiFi blows.”

The first bullet point on the five-point list is the n-word.

The slur is followed by “incompetent professors,” “ratchets,” “overpopulated campus” and “parking.”

[Kentucky’s Andrew Harrison apologizes for expletive, racial slur about Frank Kaminsky (updated)]

On Friday, Harris Pastides, the president of the university, released the following statement:

“Today, the unfortunate and disappointing act of a student in a study room has challenged the Carolina community to reflect on our values and tell the world what we believe. Respect for all is at the heart of the Carolinian Creed, the code by which we agree to abide. Racist and uncivil rhetoric have no place at the University of South Carolina.

We have taken appropriate actions to suspend a student and begin code of conduct investigations. The Board of Trustees has endorsed this prompt course of action.

Let us now come together as a university community to reaffirm our commitment to each other as a Gamecock family.”

Respect for all and the @UofSCCreed are our #UofSC values. Racism and incivility are not tolerated. Situation being investigated.

— University of South Carolina (@UofSC) April 3, 2015

The incident at South Carolina is the second example in the past week of white college students being caught using racially charged language on a college campus.

[Eight San Francisco police officers expected to be fired over racist, homophobic texts]

Bucknell University expelled three students last week after a radio broadcast in which racist comments and language was used, including phrases such as “black people should be dead” and “lynch ’em,” according to Vox. 

The broadcast was brought to the attention of university officials by an inmate at a nearby prison who overheard it and informed a prison advocacy group, according to the New York Post.

On Wednesday, a noose was found hanging from a tree on the Duke University campus, according to the New York Daily News.

Last month, video of University of Oklahoma Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members engaged in a racist chant calling for the violent destruction of black people went viral. David Boren, the university president, called their behavior “disgraceful” and kicked the fraternity off campus.

MORE READING: Meet the black man who calls the disgraced Oklahoma fraternity ‘his family’

Oklahoma frat’s racist chant highlights the exclusionary roots of Greek life

‘Real Sooners are not bigots.’ How the University of Oklahoma is responding to a racist frat video.