Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) on Monday denounced racism and discrimination several days after he shared a video of counterprotesters at the University of Mississippi that included a shot of one participant making apelike gestures and noises in front of a Black woman.
The move came after Collins on Friday shared on X a video of counterprotesters shouting down pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the campus of the University of Mississippi while praising the actions as “Ole Miss taking care of business.”
In the video, dozens of mostly White young men, some holding American flags and several wearing American flag overalls, are yelling at demonstrators on the university quad. There’s one Black pro-Palestinian protester visible on-screen, separated from the men by the university’s dean of students, Brent Marsh, and law enforcement.
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Then, as the camera pans right in the video, one young man is seen at the edge of the screen, jumping up and down, making what sound like apelike noises at the one protester — a Black woman appearing to record the interaction on her phone. Other counterprotesters shout, “Lock her up!”
Asked for comment Saturday, a spokesperson for Collins said in an email that the congressman had shared the video as an example of counterprotesters “not letting occupiers encamp and trash their campus.” The spokesperson did not respond to questions about the counterprotester’s apelike gestures, including in a follow-up email sent Sunday.
But on Monday, four days after the incident, Collins acknowledged in a social media statement that the video showed “potentially inappropriate behavior that none of us should seek to glorify.”
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“Frankly I did not believe that to be the focal point of the video shared at the time,” Collins’s post on X said. He also continued to praise counterprotests at colleges where “regular students are standing up against the pro-Hamas, anti-American, Antifa anarchists.”
The video from Ole Miss, particularly of the segment showing the racist trope, quickly went viral online last week. The school — the site of a 1962 riot over desegregation that marked a turning point in the civil rights movement — announced Friday it was aware of a demonstration that “conveyed hostility and racist overtones” and said that it had opened a student conduct investigation.
But Collins and many Republican elected officials have taken to embracing counterprotesters at colleges where mostly peaceful demonstrations are occurring by asserting that the protests demonstrate how Democrats are sowing chaos. Many GOP members, including former president Donald Trump, have praised counterprotesters around the country for demonstrating what they see as their American patriotism on college campuses.
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The Black woman in the Ole Miss video has identified herself on Facebook as Jaylin R. Smith, a graduate journalism student at the university, who said she was recording the interaction “as a protestor and not as a journalist.”
Smith, in another video of the scene, is seen flipping off counterprotesters after they yelled profanities at her and called her “Lizzo,” comparing her to the pop signer.
In a public Facebook post, she acknowledged that in response to the taunts, she used “strong language” — something that was not heard in videos reviewed by The Washington Post — and she said that it was “a reflection of the hurt and anger and fear that has been all too familiar to people of color.”
The man making the gestures has not been officially identified. The Post’s attempts to contact him Sunday, including messages sent to several possible email addresses to the student and possible phone numbers for his father, were not successful.
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The national headquarters of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity announced Sunday that it had “removed from membership” a person who was shown in video of the protest engaging in “racist actions.” The fraternity did not identify the person, but said in a statement that the actions were “antithetical to the values of Phi Delta Theta and the Mississippi Alpha chapter.”
Other GOP officials, such as Trump and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R), have shared different videos of the counterprotest that do not appear to show the White person’s gestures.
The version of the video that Collins shared is credited to Richard Hanania, someone who previously espoused white supremacist views that he has since said he disavows. In sharing the video, Hanania wrote, “This video from Ole Miss is beautiful, but guys, please put away the phones. Be in the moment when you’re mocking the Hamas loving fat girl.”
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In an email to The Post on Monday, Hanania said of the gestures, “I don’t think one can prove it has racial overtones, but I wouldn’t defend it.”
But he went on to add that it wasn’t necessary to attack the counterprotesters. “I also don’t think that in an argument in which both sides are participating, if one person says something racist or makes a racist gesture that should be considered as something worthy of punishment,” Hanania said to The Post. “The reason that video went viral is that conservatives often feel that young people are against them, especially at universities, so any hint of youth resistance to leftist protests will be amplified.”
Stacey Spiehler, a journalism student at Ole Miss, said she originally filmed the widely shared video of the incident at the campus quad.
“Approximately 30 protesters were standing safely inside a protective barricade, and the video shows a student walking slightly (2’) outside the barricade while videoing the crowd and talking,” Spiehler said, describing the scene to The Post in a direct message via Instagram.
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“The law enforcement officers are shown urging her to walk back toward the barricade as she receives taunting from the counterprotesters, including another student’s monkey impersonation and chants of ‘lock her up,’” Spiehler added.
Trump embraced the counterprotesters by sharing a video compilation on Truth Social, his social media platform, of clips of counter-demonstrations by American college students on different campuses across the country including at Ole Miss. Trump’s video features a short clip of Spiehler’s video — without the young man’s racial taunt.
On Instagram, his account shared a video of Ole Miss counterprotesters waving a Trump flag and shouting “We want Trump!”
“Thank you Ole Miss—MAGA!” the Instagram caption reads.
The Trump campaign did not respond Sunday or Monday to emailed requests for comment.
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Reeves said Thursday that law enforcement was ready to take action if the protest got out of hand and later shared a different video of the counterprotesters on the Ole Miss campus, where they can be heard drowning out the protests by singing the national anthem.
“Warms my heart,” Reeves wrote on X. “I love Mississippi!”
Reeves’s office did not respond to questions about whether he disavowed the White student’s gestures.
Glenn Boyce, the chancellor of Ole Miss, sent a message to faculty, staff and students about the demonstration Friday evening, writing that the school is “aware that some statements made were offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable, including actions that conveyed hostility and racist overtones.”
“While student privacy laws prohibit us from commenting on any specific student, we have opened one student conduct investigation. We are working to determine whether more cases are warranted,” Boyce continued in the message, which was shared with The Post via email. “To be clear, people who say horrible things to people because of who they are will not find shelter or comfort on this campus.”
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