Editor’s Note: The Crimson has previously published several stories concerning a photo of a Samford student that included a racially offensive caption. No information obtained by or provided to The Crimson indicates that the student in the photo knowingly participated in creating, posting, or sharing the captioned photograph. To the extent that its stories have indicated erroneously that the student in the photograph was responsible for the Snapchat post, The Crimson is happy to clarify the facts for the record.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., On Wednesday, an offensive photo of a student at Samford University spread on social media, causing a backlash across campus.
In the picture posted to Snapchat, a female identified as a Samford student is visible a spray tan with the caption, “we changing races tonight.”
According to an email statement from Phil Kimrey, Samford’s vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, the student in the photo has denied involvement in posting and sharing the photo.
“This has been going on for too long,” alumnus Andrew Harris said. “Samford has been throwing things under the rug. If it was just a joke or not, it’s still offensive because you don’t see any African Americans putting powder on their face and saying ‘changing race tonight.'”
In the press release, Kimrey and Denise Gregory, assistant provost for diversity and intercultural initiatives, apologized for the incident and to anyone who was offended by the actions of the students.
“I think it’s nonsense, whatever excuse they want to come with will be nonsense as well,” senior Samuel Obi said. “Regardless of whether it was meant to be offensive or not, that fact that they found it comical and wanted to put it on social media is beyond me.”
Another student, senior Rick Charles, said he was not surprised by the incident.
“It’s not a surprise that this happened at Samford University. But it’s getting out of hand, whenever something like that like happens, all we get is an apology and that’s it, things go back to normal,” Charles said.
Kimrey says these actions to not represent Samford University and wants to use it as a learning moment.
“I invite all of the Samford community to join us in using this incident as an impetus for promoting mutual respect among all people,” Kimrey said in the statement.
Samford SGA Press Secretary Abbie Brown said the SGA president will make a statement Friday after speaking directly with those directly involved. [Ed. note: That statement is available here.]
The students in question were reached out to for a response, but declined to comment on this story.
Yawn.
why are people so thin skinned? If it was a remark agai nst whites nothing would be said
Please don’t apologize, girls. It was a silly comment, not “racially charged” in any way. Tell Samford to suck it and go pursue your education elsewhere. If we don’t stand up to this non-sense beginning now, we’re in for some really crazy times.
The comments here show what the problem is. Samford is one of the least diverse schools in the Southeast, and the majority of our student body turns a blind eye to this and the fact that our school is located in the most historically divided city in the United States. If you wanna say this is the first time this has happened, go look up Samford ADPi racist T-Shirt. Our administration has done so much to make the minority groups across campus feel accepted and part of the school family, but students trying to be “funny” continue to destroy every bridge that’s been built between different cultures at Samford. I hope this makes it to CNN, because if it was the opposite situation at a HBC Fox News would have a field day.
Please apologize, girls. It was very “racially charged” and completely uncalled for. Samford, please tell them to pursue their education elsewhere because racism is not welcome here. We should stand against this non-sense.
Some of these comments are written with true privilege – unfortunate. I’d guess the majority of Samford’s student body, staff & faculty are above and beyond this kind of activity. Whoever posted and labeled the pic(s) should certainly apologize and more.
This is not an offensive picture. If so, not to blacks; what I see is a dark brown more of Latino than black races. The white stripe is why this person made the comment. They were making fun of her for having applied it improperly and she had no idea that it would go any further. It is funny. To me it is not racist at all.
It’s a stupid thing to do. The school has a reputation to uphold and if you try to do something like this on a company picnic, you’re going to be FIRED. The blackface thing has been done. So has pulling your eyes out at the side to mock people of Chinese ancestry. The President mocked the disabled. That was inappropriate, too! Grow up and learn what is appropriate and what is not – something you should have learned at home if you had grown up in a household where morality is valued.