University Of Minnesota Duluth Students Appear In Blackface, Repeat Racist Stereotypes In Video

Young Women Repeat Several Racist Stereotypes In Video, Apologize To College Paper

In a controversial video, two young women, one of whom currently attends the University of Minnesota Duluth, mug for the camera in blackface, spewing racist stereotypes and racial epithets.

"We true Negroes," the women say, laughing, "We come from the black hood."

University officials, however, did not find the YouTube clip funny in the slightest. When the clip first came to their attention in mid-November, they issued a campus-wide email statement, calling the women's actions "unacceptable behavior for anyone," according to UMD student newspaper The Statesman.

Last week, the paper tracked down the women from the video and identified them as Rachel Cooper and Jessica Heid. When contacted by the paper, both women emailed apologies.

“We were doing facials and it happened to have been a brown facial mask,” Cooper wrote. “We had to leave it on for 12 minutes. During that 12 minutes, we horribly decided to make a video that we regret and are not happy about. This was made over a year ago.”

According to the school's website, 8 percent of the 11,491 UMD students enrolled this fall are of color.

The university has struggled with racism in the past, according to the Duluth News Tribune. Officals have been working to unite the campus following a 2010 scandal involving racial slurs written by white students on Facebook.

The city of Duluth, too, has struggled with prior racially charged incidents. Earlier in November, an effigy of President Barack Obama was hung from a prominent Duluth billboard, Minnesota Public Radio reports.

"If there were competition to be Minnesota's most racist city, Duluth would likely be a heavy favorite," MPR's Bob Collins wrote at the time.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot