The alleged prejudiced correspondence was revealed in leaked screenshots from a GroupMe group message.
Last week, several screenshots leaked that depicted racist and homophobic messages being shared from the GroupMe account of a prominent former member in TU’s College Republicans chapter.
We have chosen to keep the name of this student anonymous, as we have been unable to independently confirm that they were responsible for sending the messages.
The screenshots included two offensive memes sent by the student’s account, as well as a message where they used racial epithets.
One of the memes depicted a photoshopped image of Mike Pence on a Yu-Gi-Oh playing card, which referenced the vice president’s supposed support of electroshock conversion therapy and included the game action, “Instantly kills all gays on flip.”
The matter is currently under investigation by members of TU’s administration. We reached out to President Clancy and Dean of Students Mike Mills, as well as the student in question, but they could not answer specific questions at this time given the ongoing nature of the investigation.
We also contacted the office of Mayor G. T. Bynum, where the student interned. The office declined to comment.
These troubling screenshots were disseminated just a day after the University of Oklahoma’s student newspaper, OU Daily, broke a similar story concerning student members of College Republicans.
Leaked screenshots revealed several white members of the OU College Republicans GroupMe discussing a recent blackface incident on the Norman campus, denying that anything racist had occurred and insisting that they “live everyday where people say blatantly racist shit towards white people as if it’s normal and not racist.”
These individuals were removed from the group message after the outcry of some of its members, but they were subsequently added again, citing a “free marketplace of ideas.”
