BRIDGEWATER, MASS. (WHDH) - Bridgewater State University officials are investigating after they say a post was made on their mobile app featuring one of their students in blackface with a “deeply offensive” racial slur written across the picture.
Members of the BSU community reached out to the university Tuesday about the post on the BSU Student Mobile App, prompting the Office of Community Standards and the Office of Equal Opportunity to launch an investigation into the validity of all elements in the image, including the text, BSU President Frederick Clark wrote in a letter to community members.
“This message is abhorrent and degrading and strikes at the very core of our university community,” he continued.
Officials have been in contact with the student in the picture and their family and say they will address the matter promptly.
“I want to express my gratitude to members of our community for alerting us to this racist post. We heard your voices loud and clear,” Clark wrote.
This incident came during a time of unrest across the country as people call for racial justice following the death of George Floyd, who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against the handcuffed black man’s neck as he cried that he couldn’t breathe.
“During this national crisis, when we are all coming together in solidarity to remind our country that black lives matter, such a message only exacerbates the pain and anger we are already feeling,” Clark said. “We are committed to the values expressed in the university’s official values statement and to the principles of social justice. We must do better, and we will do better.”
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