Students are calling on the University of Missouri to expel the now-former leader of a right-wing student group for using a racist slur in a social media post that laughed about the deaths of Black people.
Meg Miller resigned as president of the university’s chapter of Turning Point USA, the nation’s largest college Republican group, after the racist post she apparently authored spread online last week, the Kansas City Star reported.
“If they would have killed 4 more n****rs we would have had the whole week off,” Miller’s selfie was captioned, complete with laughing emojis.
The post, and screenshots of Miller’s Instagram bio, were shared online on Dec. 7 by Mizzou student Kaylyn Walker, the vice chair of social justice for the Missouri Students Association.
Miller’s Instagram, Facebook and other social media profiles are no longer accessible and appear to have been deactivated. However, according to the screengrab of her bio, she was studying agriculture and animal sciences and characterized herself as “unapologetically conservative,” a “second amendment enthusiast” and “pro-life advocate.” HuffPost was unable to contact her.
Other screenshots shared online appear to show Miller sharing transphobic hate and posing with Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who was acquitted after he fatally shot two racial justice protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020.
In another post apparently from Miller’s account, she posed with a blood-spattered deer under the caption “pulled a Rittenhouse #deerseason.”
The University of Missouri said in a statement on Dec. 8 that Miller’s social media activity had been referred to its Office of Institutional Equity for investigation. It said the university would take “appropriate action” following the review.
“This language is reprehensible, and we condemn any language and actions that are racist, discriminatory and hateful to our community,” said Mun Choi, president of the University of Missouri.
Miller appeared to have posted the racist content months ago, a university spokesperson told HuffPost. When students discovered it, they repeatedly alerted the school.
Walker, the student who tweeted about Miller’s post, told The Kansas City Defender that someone had shared it in a group chat for Black Mizzou students and that “everyone immediately went into action,” flooding Miller’s social media, contacting college officials and tagging faculty on Twitter.
“This happens everyday on our campus. People feel unsafe, unvalued, unloved. We are all banding together. This is a reoccurring thing, none of us have gotten any response whatsoever from the administration. Nothing from an actual person. Those auto-generated responses are the only updates we’ve gotten so far,” Walker told the Defender in an article published on Dec. 8, adding that students in her community would rally to do “whatever it takes to make the campus safer for people of color.“
A spokesperson for the University of Missouri told HuffPost in an email Thursday that the university responded immediately upon learning of the post last week.
“A report was filed with our Office of Institutional Equity and a review was initiated immediately by our team of professional investigators. University officials also issued a statement regarding the post the same day that it was brought to our attention,” the spokesperson said, adding that administrators were staying in contact with students, student leaders and groups to ensure they were receiving support.
The university said it was unable to provide information about specific disciplinary actions relating to a student, but noted that “in general, students who are found responsible for committing a policy violation can face a wide range of disciplinary action up to, and including, expulsion from the university.”
Turning Point USA told the Kansas City Star that Miller quit the University of Missouri chapter “without explanation” last week.
“This kind of language has no place at TPUSA, and we support her decision to remove herself from all involvement with that local chapter,” the group said.
The youth activist group, which has attracted support from white nationalists, has set up chapters in colleges and high schools across the country since it was founded in 2012, causing concern among parents who oppose the group’s promotion of right-wing views on racism and other social justice issues.